PRELIMINARY [CHAPTER 1, SECTIONS 1-5]

 Object and Juriprudence

 Crpc is intended to provide a mechanism for the enforcement of criminal

law. It is meant to be complimentary to the criminal law.

 A crime is considered to be a wrong against the society and societal interest

lies in the fact that the culprit shall be prosecuted, convicted, punished for
that certain fundamental rights of the accused such as life and liberty,
freedom of speech & expression needs to be curtailed. Further, the cardinal
principle of jurisprudence is that the accused has to be presumed innocent
until his guilt is proved. Thus, rights of the accused is curtailed even though
he has not been proved to be guilty.

 Purposive interpretation means first the purpose of Crpc will be examined

and then in that light the purpose of that provision will be examined and
best interpretation will be adopted out of various interpretation. Heydon’s
principle is based on the concept the purpose of every law and every
provision of law is to do away with mischief of the society and whichever
interpretation helps in doing away with that mischief to the best shall be
adopted.

 Therefore, the purpose of Crpc is to do justice between the individual and

society and interpretation has to be adopted which serves ends of justice to
the best and which can remove the mischief to the best. This is called
balancing of interest. On the one hand it provides for prosecution and on
the other hand it provides for safeguarding the interest of accused and for
this Crpc has been amended several times.
 The basic structure of constitution includes within itself the principles of
natural justice, reasonableness, non-arbitrariness in all circumstances and
any curtailment of the right of the accused, therefore, shall be in adherence
with these rules.

 This aspect is based on the following two maxims:-

 Audi altrem partem (hear other side)

 Nemi judex causa sua(no person can be judge in his own case) i.e.
rule against bias S. 479 Cr.Pc.

 Supreme Court Shivjee Singh v. Nagendra Tiwari AIR 2010 SC 2261 held
that the provisions of the Code are to be interpreted in light of recognized
principles of construction that procedural laws are meant for doing
substantial justice.
 SCOPE: Commencement, extent and applicability of the Code

 The Code has 37 Chapters, 484 Sections.

 Subject of Crpc is Entry No. 2 in 7th Schedule(Concurrent List).

 The Code mandatorily applies to offences under the Indian Penal Code but
in case of other laws, the Code applies only if and only to such extent to
which there are no procedural provisions under that law.

 Section 320 of this Code contains the entire list of offences under the India
Penal Code which are compoundable but the Code does not declare any
offence under any other law to be compoundable.

 In the First Schedule of the Code, a complete and special classification of all
offences under the Indian Penal Code has been done but for offences under
other laws, only a general classification, at a cursory level, has been done in
the second part of the first Schedule of the Code.

 Special importance is given to Indian Penal Code as Section 2(y) of this Code
states that words and expressions which have been used in the Code but
not defined therein and are defined under the Indian Penal Code shall have
same meanings given to them under IPC. Hence, IPC is supplementary to
this Code but no other law has this position.

 The Preamble of this Code uses the word “consolidate” which indicates
that from the perspective of criminal procedure, this Code is complete in
itself. But the use of word “consolidate” in any Act or Code merely
indicates that on that particular subject, the Act or Code is complete in
 itself but that the word consolidate does not put a prohibition on the
legislative power of the Parliament and the State legislature on that
subject. The legislature can make new provisions on the same matter in
future. For e.g., law relating to attendance of the accused through video
conferencing was not originally present in the Code, hence the code in the
beginning was not exhaustive on this point.

 Came into force on 1st April 1974.

 According to Section 1 of Crpc it extends to whole of India including

Jammu and Kashmir after Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act
2019[Section 95(1)(Fifth Schedule Table 5)] from 31 October 2019.

 It further says that the provisions of Crpc other than those relating to
Chapter VIII, X and XI are NOT applicable in certain districts of State of
Nagaland and Tribal areas.

 Tribal areas for the purpose of Section 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code
means Assam as prescribed in Para 20 of the Sixth Schedule of the
Constitution.

 Supreme Court in the following cases has held that though the provisions of
Crpc are not applicable in certain districts of the State of Nagaland, it only
means that the rules of Crpc would not apply but the authorities would be
governed by the substance of these rules:-

 Mowu v. Superintendent Special Jail, Nowgong, Assam

 Saptawana v. State of Assam
  Naga people’s movement of Human Rights and Union of India
(1998)

 Applicability of the Code: According to Section 4 of the Code generally

Cr.PC. is applicable in respect of investigation, inquiry or trial of offences
punishable under Indian Penal Code.

 Section 4(2) further lays down that offences under any other law shall also
be investigated, inquired and tired according to the procedure in the Code.
But if there is any enactment which regulates the manner, place of
investigation, inquiry or trial of offences the procedure prescribed in that
enactment will be followed. The Code of criminal procedure does not apply
to court proceedings as contempt of court is not an offence within Section
4(2).

 Section 5 lays down that in absence of any specific provision in the Code,
the provisions of any special or local law, special jurisdiction or power
conferred or special form of procedure shall not be affected.

 A conjoint reading of both sections clearly provides that for

offences punishable under IPC procedure prescribed in Cr.PC. shall
be applicable but if there is any special or local law, special
procedure or power conferred by any other law, such law,
procedure or power shall be applicable.
 DEFINITIONS: SECTION 2

(a) Bailable offence and non-bailable offence

 Bailable offence means an offence which is shown as Bailable in the First

Schedule or which is made bailable by any other law for the time being in
force.

 A non-bailable offence means any other offence.

 Whether the offence is bailable or not is provided in the Column 5 of First

Schedule which lays down classification of offences given under the Indian
Penal Code.

 According to the First Schedule the offences under laws other than IPC,
which are punishable with imprisonment of 3 years or more are considered
to be non-bailable, while offences punishable with less than 3 years of
imprisonment are considered to be bailable.

 The provisions relating to bail are laid down in Chapter XXXIII of the Code.

 In case of being arrested or taken into custody for a non-bailable offence,

release of the person on bail is generally subject to discretion of the
competent police officer and court.

 The provisions of anticipatory bail under Section 438 and provision of police
remand under Section 167 apply only in cases of non-bailable offences.
Bailable Offences Non-Bailable Offence
1. Bailable offence means an
offence which is shown as
bailable in the First Non-Bailable Offence means any other
Schedule or which is made offence.
bailable by any other Law
for the time being in force.
2. Bailable offences are
Bailable offences are grave and serious
regarded as less grave and
offences, For example- offence of murder.
less serious.
3. Under bailable offences,
Under Non-bailable offences, bail is a matter
bail is claimed as a matter
of discretion.
of right.

(b) Charge

 Charge includes any head of charge when the charge contains more
heads than one.

 A charge can be defined as a precise formulation of the specific

accusation made against a person. It is framed when a prime facie case
is disclosed about commission of certain offence or offences.
  Form No. 32 of the Second Schedule of the Code is related to Charge.
Chapter 17(Section 211-214) of the Code deals with contents of charge,
language, effect of errors, alteration and combination of charges.

 Section 215 of the Code deals with the error in framing of charges and is
to be read with Section 464.

 The object of framing charge is two fold:-

1. To give notice of the essential facts which the prosecution proposes to
establish against the accused in order to prove the case against him, so that
the accused may not be prejudiced in his defense.
2. It is the foundation of the accused in a criminal trial and separates the
inquiry stage from the trial.

Section Manner of framing Trial

Section 228(1) In writing By court of sessions
Section 240 In writing Of warrant case(on
police report) by
Magistrate
Section 246(1) In writing Of warrant case (on
other than Police
Report) by Magistrate
Section 251 In writing or oral Of Summons case by
Magistrate.
(C) Cognizable offence and non-cognizable offence [Section 2(c) and Section 2(l)]

 According to Section 2(c), a “Cognizable offence” means an offence for

which & “Cognizable Case” means a case in which a police officer may, in
accordance with the first schedule or under any other law for the time
being in force, arrest without warrant.

 According to Section 2(l), “non-cognizable offence” means an offence for

which and non-cognizable case means a case in which a police officer has
no authority to arrest without warrant.

 Information to police about cognizable offences is called FIR (First

Information Report) whose procedure for being recorded is given under
Section 154.

 Section 156(1) Cr.P.C. , any officer in charge of police station may without
the order of magistrate investigate any cognizable case. This section makes
it expressly clear that a cognizable case can be investigated by the police
officer without the order of the magistrate. Whereas Section 155(2) of
Cr.P.C., states that police officer shall not investigate a non-cognizable case
without the order of a magistrate having power to try such a case or
commit the case for trial.

 On the point of arrest in cognizable and non-cognizable cases reference

may be made to Section 41 (1) of Cr.PC. It says that any police officer may
without the order of magistrate and without warrant, arrest any person.
Whereas Section 41(2) lays down that no person concerned in a non-
cognizable case shall be arrested without or warrant or order from the
court. (Section 42 being exception)
  For any cognizable offence, a suspect or accused may be arrested by any
police officer without warrant subject to Sections 41A and 41B of the Code.

 Generally, a suspect or accused charged for a non-cognizable offence

cannot be arrested by the police without a warrant but he may be arrested
under Section 42 only to ascertain the name and address.

 The classification of offences in to cognizable and non-cognizable is shown

in Column 4 in the First Schedule of the Code.

Cognizable offence + Cognizable offence = Cognizable

case
Cognizable offence+ Non-cognizable
Cognizable offence= Cognizable
Non-Cognizable
case (Section 155(4))
It is the Non-cognizable
offence in whichoffence
a police+ Non-cognizable offence=
It is the offence Non- a police
in which
cognizable
officer can case
arrest the convict without officer cannot arrest a person without
the warrant. the warrant.

The police can start a preliminary The police officer cannot start the
investigation without the permission investigation without the permission
of the court or without registering of the court.
the FIR.

These are heinous crimes like These crimes are not so serious like
murder, rape, dowry death etc. forgery, cheating, defamation etc.

The victim can file an FIR or make a The victim can only make a complaint
complaint to the magistrate. to the magistrate.

It is defined in the Section 2(c) of the It is defined in Section 2(I) of Criminal

Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. Procedure Code 1973.

The police officer is bound to register The police officer is not bound to
the FIR even without the permission register the FIR or cannot register the
of Magistrate. FIR without prior permission of the
magistrate.

It is a non-bailable offence. It is a bailable offence.

 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CASE AND OFFENCE?

 The moment FIR/complaint is given it will be called as cognizable case and before
FIR/complaint/information it will be cognizable offence.

 Therefore, whenever after the commission of an offence the moment proceeding starts the
offence converts into a case. It may involve a single offence or several offence, in the case
of several offences it will be a cognizable case only if at least one of them is cognizable
offence and only one case will be for all offence.

 For non-cognizable offence/case, a given complaint to SHO, he will record substance of

non-cognizable case in a book called NCR(record of non-cognizable offence). He will give
copy of it to the informant. He will also take all NCR to the Magistrate for getting
permission from authority to investigate as without order of area magistrate police can’t
investigate.

 It is clearly manifested in Section 155(2) that there can’t be an investigation in a non-

cognizable case without the order of magistrate. Thus, the investigation done without such
order will be an irregular/ illegal investigation. The general rule is that the accused must as
soon as possible raise an objection in this regard. He can in the course of investigation file
an application under Section 482 before High Court. The High Court in such case will quash
investigation proceeding and, in this stage, it is incurable irregularity and there will be no
examination of failure of justice.

 If no such application is filed, investigation was completed and police report was filed then
on the ground that there was no order of magistrate, the magistrate can refuse to take
cognizance. If by chance he takes cognizance and at trial stage an application of Section
482 Crpc is filed or after the judgment, an appeal is filed and in appeal the objection is
raised then the defect becomes curable irregularity under Section 465 of Crpc and the
proceeding will be quashed only if there had been failure of justice against the accused.
[(Keshav Lal v. State of Bihar 1996)]

 Therefore, from investigation to Police Report Stage it is incurable irregularity under

Section 482 and from Investigation to Judgment and after that appeal under Section 482
it is curable regularity.
 Under Section 156, police can investigate those cases whose trial can be made by the
Magistrate of that area.