Failure to appear in court a separate offence: Top court

NON-APPEARANCE IS AN OFFENCE, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER THE PROCLAMATION IS LATER NULLIFIED OR THE ACCUSED IS ACQUITTED, THE TOP COURT SAID

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that the offence of ignoring a court-issued proclamation to appear is a "standalone" crime that continues to hold even if the accused is cleared of the charges for which the direction was issued.

Clarifying the scope of the pertinent legal provision, the top court held that the act of non-appearance itself constitutes an offence, irrespective of whether the proclamation is later nullified or the accused is finally acquitted. Section 174A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) penalises the offence of failing to respond to a court-issued proclamation. This provision has been replaced with Section 209 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), effective from July 1, 2024.

The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising justices CT Ravikumar and Sanjay Karol on Thursday. The court underlined that once an individual fails to appear at the place and time specified in the proclamation issued under Section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the offence is immediately triggered.