The Court dismissed the criminal revision challenging the refusal to discharge the accused under Section 245 CrPC. The Court held that family members are not interested witnesses and their evidence cannot be discarded without cross-examination. A prima facie case was established.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CRIMINAL REVISION No.1067 of 2018
Arising Out of PS. Case No.-857 Year-2013 Thana- NALANDA COMPLAINT CASE District- Nalanda
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... ... Petitioner/s
Versus
... ... Respondent/s
====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Advocate For the O.P. No.2 : Mr. Krishna Deo Raj, Advocate For the State : Mr. Sunil Kumar Pandey, APP ======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BIBEK CHAUDHURI ORAL ORDER
9 15-02-2024
By an order dated 9th July, 2018, the learned S.D.J.M., Nalanda at Biharsharif in C.R. Case No. 857(C)/2013 rejected an application under Section 245 of the Code of Criminal Procedure filed by the accused Niraj Kumar, Gyaneshwar Das and Nirmala Devi.
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for the prosecution. The provision runs thus :-
Section 245 . When the accused shall be discharged. - (1) If, upon taking all the evidence referred to in section 244, the Magistrate considers, for reasons to be recorded, that no case against the accused has been made out which, if unrebutted, would warrant his conviction, the Magistrate shall discharge him.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent a Magistrate from discharging the accused at any previous stage of the case if, for reasons to be recorded by such Magistrate, he considers the charge to be groundless.
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the year 2010. On 17th January, 2012, the said Niraj Kumar filed an application before the Human Rights Commission, Bihar alleging, inter alia, that his wife is quarrelsome lady, she did not perform her obligation as a wife, she did not attain different festivals and performance of pooja etc. celebrated in her matrimonial home. During holidays, she being a teacher of a school used to visit her paternal home and did not come to the house of the petitioner. It was also lodged that the wife of the petitioner did not give any share of her income at her matrimonial home.
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best witnesses. The learned Magistrate considered the evidence of the complainant and other witnesses to happens to be the family members of the complainant. At this stage, the learned Magistrate has no right and authority to discovered the evidence and witnesses on the ground of interestedness of the family members of the complainant. Whether the witnesses on behalf of the complainant described true affairs of the incidents or not can be tested in the touchstone of the cross-examination. Without cross-examination, evidence of no witness can be held to be false that would warrant discharge of an accused.
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charge under Section 244 of the Cr.P.C., is not the stage to consider as to whether proposed charge has been proved or not. The said fact will be available after cross-examination of the witnesses on behalf of the prosecution, after consideration of charge.
(Bibek Chaudhuri, J)
Guddu/-
U T
2 issues framed by the court
Whether family members of the complainant can be treated as interested witnesses warranting discharge at the charge stage?
Whether prima facie case exists against the accused for framing of charge?
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Niraj Kumar and Ors
State Of Bihar and Anr
Rekha Kumari W/o Niraj Kumar
Bibek Chaudhuri
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
