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Devendra Kumar Pal vs State of U.P. & Anr.

Not available · 2024 INSC 679Decided 6 Sept 2024
Not available

Background

In a murder trial under Section 302 IPC, the trial court, on 21 March 2012, first pronounced convictions for some accused and acquittals for others. Later the same day, after already passing sentencing orders on the convicted accused, the trial court invoked Section 319 CrPC to summon Devendra Kumar Pal as an additional accused. Pal's challenge to this summoning order was dismissed by a Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court, and he appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court applied the Constitution Bench ruling in Sukhpal Singh Khaira v. State of Punjab (2022 INSC 1252), which held that the power under Section 319 CrPC must be exercised before the order of sentence (in case of conviction) or before the order of acquittal: a summoning order passed after sentence or acquittal is not sustainable. Since the trial court here had already passed the sentencing order before summoning Pal under Section 319, the summoning order fell foul of this rule. Bound by the Constitution Bench's law, the two-judge Bench allowed the appeal and quashed both the High Court's order and the trial court's summoning order against Pal.

Lesson Learnt

A court cannot add a new accused to a trial under Section 319 CrPC once it has already pronounced sentence (or acquittal) for the other accused: the timing of such an order is strict, and getting it wrong voids the summoning even if the underlying evidence might otherwise justify it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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