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Mr. Sandeep Talwar vs. State Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Anr.

Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8184Decided 21 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CRL.M.C. 7034/2026CNR: DLHC010448912026
Justice Mini Pushkarna

Background

The petitioner, father-in-law of the complainant in a 2025 FIR (alleging offences including dowry-harassment-type provisions under the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita), was named as accused along with his son (brother-in-law), the husband, and mother-in-law of the complainant. After investigation, the police did not find enough evidence against the petitioner and his son and placed them only in "Column 12" (suspects, not chargesheeted): yet the Trial Court, in a single mechanical order, took cognizance and summoned all four family members without giving separate reasons for those in Column 12.

Decision Breakdown

The Court noted that in an identical, connected case the petitioner's son had already succeeded in getting his own summoning order set aside for the very same reason (no independent reasoning for a Column 12 "suspect"). Applying the same logic, the Court held that summoning the petitioner without any recorded reasons, despite the investigating officer finding no incriminating evidence against him, was legally unsustainable, and set aside the cognizance/summoning order specifically as it applied to this petitioner, sending the matter back to the Trial Court to reconsider with proper reasoning.

Lesson Learnt

A trial court cannot mechanically summon every named accused in a chargesheet; where the police itself has found no evidence against a particular person (placing them in "Column 12" as a mere suspect rather than chargesheeting them), the court must record specific reasons before proceeding against that person, or its order can be quashed by the High Court.

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