Is it mandatory to lodge FIR under section 174-A IPC after the 82/83 CrPC proceedings are done?

Proceedings under Section 174-A IPC can’t be initiated unless accused is declared as proclaimed
offender by competent court.

Delhi High Court: The Court dealt with an important question of law in criminal proceedings in a case,
where the process under Sections 82 and 83 CrPC was issued against the accused. While the statement
of process server under Section 82 CrPC was recorded by the CMM, the process couldn’t be completed
under Section 83 for want of any property in the name of petitioner. Section 82 deals with proclaiming a
person as proclaimed offender if he/she is absconding while Section 83 provides for attachment of the
property of the person.

In the meanwhile before the petitioner could be declared as proclaimed offender, Investigation Officer
filed a supplementary charge-sheet dated 31.08.2013 under Sections
384/387/419/420/467/468/471/474/174A/506/120B/34 IPC. Thereafter, his anticipatory bail
application was accepted by Add. Sessions Judge, New Delhi. The grievance of the petitioner is that the
Investigating Officer had no power to add Section 174-A IPC in the supplementary charge-sheet prior to
declaring the petitioner a proclaimed offender by the trial court. The petitioner was declared as
proclaimed offender after the supplementary charge-sheet was filed against him including the charge of
Section 174-A IPC which provides for imprisonment of a person for non-appearance in response to a
proclamation under Section 82 CrPC.

So, in the present petition the vital question before the Court was whether Section 174-A IPC could be
added by the Investigating Officer before declaring the petitioner to be a proclaimed offender. To this
question, the Court responded in negation. The Court held that the IO had added the charge of Section
174-A IPC much before the date when the order of his proclamation as proclaimed offender had been
issued and said that he had no power to do so. Justice I.S. Mehta observed that the bare reading of the
section was making it amply clear that proceeding under Section 174-A could only be started only after
the person is declared as proclaimed offender and thus, allowed the petition. [Deepak Kumar@ Deepak
Saha v. State, 2017 SCC OnLine Del 6920, decided on 07.02.2017]

In the case of Purushottam Dev Arya vs Cbi on 23 February, 2017, Section 195 Cr. P.C. prescribes that no
Court can take cognizance of any offence punishable under Sections 174 to 188 IPC (Both inclusive)
without a complaint in writing. No such complaint was filed by a public servant.

A. Krishna Reddy Petitioner v. Cbi Thr. Director, Delhi High Court,23 Feb, 2017, the Learned Standing
Counsel for CBI controverting the contentions urged that the petitioner had deliberately avoided to
appear before the Investigating Agency and was rightly declared Proclaimed Offender by following due
process. Since the petitioner was declared Proclaimed Offender, prima facie, he was liable to be
convicted for committing offence under Section 174A IPC. Reliance has been placed on the authorities
‘Maneesh Goomer v. State’, 2012 (1) JCC 465; ‘Kamlesh Kumar v. State of Jharkhand’, (2013) 15 SCC 460.