Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s. 319 – Summoning order u/s. 319 – Legality of – Appellants facing trial for offence u/s.
302 – Summoning order passed u/s. 319 by the trial court – High Court refused to quash the summoning order – Correctness: Held: Degree of satisfaction required to exercise power u/s. 319 is much stricter, considering that it is a discretionary and an extraordinary power – Only when the evidence is strong and reliable, the power can be exercised – It requires much stronger evidence than mere probability of his complicity – Appellants were named in the first information statement by the first informant despite not being an eyewitness to the offence, however, in the statement u/s. 161 Cr.P.C, first informant clarified that her family had a long-standing enmity with appellants’ family; that the names of appellants were written in the FIR falsely and without full information; and that the appellants were not involved in the murder of her son – Even in the charge sheet, the names of the appellants were not mentioned as accused – It is only in her deposition before the trial court the names of the accused resurfaced again – Almost a year later, the prosecution chose to file an application u/s. 319 – Change of circumstance which the prosecution seeks to contend on the basis of first informant’s deposition does not satisfy the requirement of s.
319 at all – First informant not being an eye-witness, her deposition not sufficient enough to invoke the extra-ordinary jurisdiction u/s. 319 to summon the appellants – No other witnesses deposed anything against the appellants – No documentary evidence collected against the appellants – Also no role attributed to the appellants – These factors when looked in a holistic manner, make it clear that the higher degree of satisfaction required for exercising power u/s. 319 not met with – Trial court erred in allowing the application u/s. 319 and issuing summons to the appellants – High Court having failed to quash the order of summons, the order passed by the trial court as also by the High Court set aside. [Paras 18-26]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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