The Supreme Court has ruled that trial courts have untrammelled powers to proceed against or summon any person as an accused, irrespective of the fact that the individual had not been named in the FIR or chargesheet.
A bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan passed the recent ruling while dismissing the appeal of Omkar Rathore challenging a Gwalior sessions court order summoning him and another person in a murder case and refusal of Madhya Pradesh High Court to set the order aside.
While referring to some of the earlier decisions of the apex court on the powers of the trial court vis-à-vis CrPC Section 319 (BNSS Section 358), the bench summarised the following principles:
- On a careful reading of Section 319 of the CrPC as well as the aforesaid two decisions, it becomes clear that the trial court has undoubted jurisdiction to add any person not being the accused before it to face the trial along with other accused persons, if the court is satisfied at any stage of the proceedings on the evidence adduced that the persons who have not been arrayed as accused should face the trial. It is further evident that such person even though had initially been named in the FIR as an accused, but not charge-sheeted, can also be added to face the trial
- The trial court can take such a step to add such persons as accused only on the basis of evidence adduced before it and not based on materials available in the chargesheet or the case diary because such materials contained in the charge sheet or the case diary do not constitute evidence
- The power of the court under Section 319 of the CrPC is not controlled or governed by naming or not naming of the person concerned in the FIR. Nor is the same dependent upon the submission of the chargesheet by the police against the person concerned.
NHRC suicide query
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought a report from the Centre and the Karnataka government on the suicide of a 72-year-old man following denial of assistance under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
The NHRC sought the report while taking suo motu cognisance of media reports that the man died by suicide on December 25, 2024, after the state government-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bengaluru declined to provide him ₹5 lakh cover under the AB PM-JAY for which he had enrolled.