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Sandeep Kumar vs The State of Haryana & Anr. (2023 INSC 654)

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 654Decided 28 Jul 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 2195 of 2023
C.T. Ravikumar · Sudhanshu Dhulia

Background

In a midnight assault at Sirsa, Haryana, in which fifteen assailants broke into the complainant's house and attacked the family (leading to the father's death), only nine of the fifteen named assailants were chargesheeted. When the complainant testified as an eyewitness during trial and squarely named three more assailants (including one, Ramesh Gandhi, who allegedly carried a gun) he asked the trial court to summon these three as additional accused under Section 319 CrPC. The trial court allowed this, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in revision, set aside the summoning of Ramesh Gandhi, reasoning he was "found innocent" in investigation and had merely fled the scene.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court fundamentally misapplied the standard for Section 319 CrPC, at the summoning stage, courts must ask only whether a prima facie case (stronger than at charge-framing, but short of near-certainty) exists from the evidence on record, not conduct a mini-trial or weigh the merits, which is a matter for cross-examination during the actual trial. Relying on the Constitution Bench ruling in Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab, the Court found the eyewitness testimony of the complainant (PW-9) squarely implicated all three men, and since the charges included Section 149 IPC (unlawful assembly), no specific individual overt act even needed to be proven for liability: mere membership in the assembly suffices. The Court found the High Court's reasoning "factually incorrect" and its inference of innocence "totally uncalled for" at that stage, allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court's order, and directed the trial to proceed against all three accused.

Lesson Learnt

A court deciding whether to summon an additional accused under Section 319 CrPC must only check if a prima facie case appears from the evidence already on record. It cannot pre-judge guilt or innocence as if conducting the trial itself; that assessment belongs to the trial after cross-examination.

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

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