Chand Devi Daga vs Manju K. Humatani - Supreme Court
Chand Devi Daga vs Manju K. Humatani - Supreme Court Important Judgment 2017 -
On 3rd November, 2017, in the case of Chand Devi Daga & Ors. v. Manju K. Humatani & Ors. [Criminal Appeal No. 1860 of 2017], the Supreme Court upheld a High Court judgment that allowed the legal heirs of the complainant to prosecute a Criminal Miscellaneous petition before the High Court. The original complainant had died during pendency of the Criminal Misc. Petition before the High Court which was filed since the complaint had been rejected by the Magistrate and a criminal revision challenging the said order had also been dismissed
It was held that “even in case of trial of summons case it is not necessary or mandatory that after death of complainant the complaint is to be rejected, in exercise of the power under proviso to Section 256(1) of CrPC, the Magistrate can proceed with the complaint. More so, the present is a case where offence was alleged under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120B and 201 read with 34 IPC for which procedure for trial of summons case was not applicable and there is no provision in Chapter XIX “Trial of warrant-cases by Magistrates” containing a provision that in the event of death of complainant the complaint is to be rejected. The Magistrate under Section 249 has power to discharge a case where the complainant is absent. The discharge under Section 249, however, is hedged with condition “the offence may be lawfully compounded or is not a cognizable offence”. It was further held that had the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 intended “that in case of death of complainant in a warrant case the complaint is to be rejected, the provision would have indicated any such intention which is clearly absent.”
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