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N. Manogar & Anr. vs The Inspector of Police & Ors.

Not available · 2024 INSC 130Decided 16 Feb 2024
Not available
Justice Vikram Nath · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

An FIR was registered after a woman complained that a person (Respondent No. 3) came to her home, assaulted her and her son, made vulgar remarks, and later threatened them, while being accompanied by her husband and another man. Only Respondent No. 3 was named and chargesheeted; the complainant, other witnesses, and the examining doctor had only implicated Respondent No. 3 in their statements. Well after the trial began, the complainant sought to have the appellants (the husband and the other man who merely accompanied Respondent No. 3) also summoned and added as accused under Section 319 CrPC. The trial court rejected this, but the Madras High Court reversed that decision and ordered the appellants impleaded, prompting this appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and restored the trial court's order refusing to add the appellants as accused. Relying on the Constitution Bench ruling in Hardeep Singh and the later decision in Sagar v. State of U.P., the Court reiterated that the power under Section 319 CrPC to summon additional accused mid-trial is an extraordinary and discretionary one, to be used sparingly, and only where the evidence goes well beyond a mere prima facie case. It must be strong enough that, if left unrebutted, it would actually lead to conviction. The Court found that the material against the appellants was only vague allegations, unlike the clear evidence naming Respondent No. 3, and did not meet this high threshold. The High Court had erred by treating a lower, prima-facie standard as sufficient.

Lesson Learnt

Courts cannot add new persons as accused partway through a criminal trial just because they were mentioned in passing in the original complaint; the evidence against them must be strong enough that, if unchallenged, it would support a conviction: a mere possibility of involvement is not enough.

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

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