"Person Not Chargesheeted Has No Right To Be Heard Before Summons": Top Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that a person not named in the chargesheet as an accused did not have the right to be heard by a trial court before being summoned to face criminal trial.

A bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, said if the high court considered the issue of summoning of a person as an accused in a criminal case after the trial court rejected such a plea, the proposed accused did have a right to hearing.

The bench was considering a legal question on Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Section 319 of the CrPC empowers the court to proceed against other persons appearing to be guilty of offence if it comes to light during the inquiry or trial that the person, who is not named as an accused, has committed the offence.

"Section 319 does not contemplate that a summoned person must be given an opportunity of being heard before being added as an accused to face the trial. A right of hearing would accrue only to a person who is already discharged in the very same proceeding prior to the commencement of the trial," the bench said.

Justice Pardiwala, who authored the judgments, further said, "This is different from holding that a person who has been summoned as per Section 319 CrPC has a right of being heard in accordance with the principles of natural justice before being added as an accused to be tried along with the other accused. However, after the rejection of an application under Section 319, a right enures in favour of the proposed accused." 

The bench said if in exercise of revisional jurisdiction, the high court was to pass an order then it was obligated in law to provide an opportunity of hearing to the proposed accused.

The verdict came in relation to a 2009 murder case in which two persons, who were not named as accused in the chargesheet, were finally summoned to face trial after a series of litigations in the trial court and the Allahabad High Court.

The top court upheld the summoning of two persons, Jamin and Akil, as accused in the murder case.

An FIR was registered in 2009 at Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh against five persons - Irshad, Irfan, Abdul, Jamin, and Akil.

The police filed a chargesheet against Irshad and Irfan while continuing their investigation against Abdul, Jamin, and Akil, who were not summoned to face the trial.

The trial court framed charges against Irshad and Irfan in 2009, and they were later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011.

During the trial, an application under Section 319 CrPC was filed by the complainant seeking the summoning of the remaining three accused.

The trial court rejected the application in 2010, stating that there was no cogent evidence against them.

However, the high court directed the trial court to reconsider the application after examining key witnesses.

After a lengthy legal battle, in 2021, the high court set aside the trial court's earlier rejection and directed it to reassess the Section 319 application.

Consequently, in February 2024, the a Hardoi court allowed the application and summoned Jamin and Akil for trial, as one of the other accused, Abdul, had passed away.

The second round of litigation saw the high court dismissing the pleas of the accused against summoning and the trial and consequently, the matter reached the top court.

The top court dismissed the plea and said that now Jamin and Akil will face trial for their alleged role in the 2009 murder.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)