A Single Judge Bench of Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar by order dated 22nd July 2021 set out the following procedure to for taking cognizance under section 200 CrPC.
(i) After the presentation of Complaint, the Magistrate must read the complaint and if he finds on the face of it, the commission of offence or offences is not disclosed, he can reject or dismiss the complaint. But the Magistrate must be slow in rejecting the complaint just on reading it because if the complaint is not properly articulated, rejection of complaint may result in causing injustice to the complainant. It is possible that intelligent drafting may give an impression that an offence has taken place, which may not be true some times. Therefore it is better to examine the complainant and the witnesses if necessary.
(ii) After reading the complaint and examining the witnesses (if they present at their examination are necessary) under section 200 CrPC the Magistrate arrives at the conclusion that there are sufficient grounds to proceed further, he shall take cognizance of the offence and issue process to the accused.
(iii) Even after following the procedure setout in section 200, if the Magistrate is not convinced about the existence of sufficient materials to take cognizance, he may resort to hold an inquiry himself or direct investigation as contemplated under section 202.
(iv) If the Magistrate does not prima facie find materials as to the constitution of any offence after examining the complainant and witnesses (if any), he can dismiss the complaint in accordance with section 203.
(v) Resorting to procedure contemplated under section 202 is not always mandatory, it may be resorted to only in the circumstances stated in section 202. That means, cognizance may be taken or the complaint may be rejected depending upon the situation even after the state of section 200.
vi) It is not necessary that a Magistrate must endorse "cognizance taken" in the order sheet, but what is required is the application of mind and it must be depicted in a brief order. The decision as to the issuing process to the accused itself amounts to cognizance being taken.
vii) Whenever an investigating police officer files a 'B' report, and the complainant wants to contest the 'B' Report, the Magistrate has to follow the same procedure set out above.
Case Details
Cause Title - Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and State of Karnataka
Case No - Crl. P. No. 1422/2021
Date of order - 22.07.2021
Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)
Supreme Court cases maintenance u/s 125
Anticipatory Bail under Section 438 of CrPC
200 CrPC Private Complaint, Procedure set by Karnataka High Court
Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC)
Classification of offences under IPC 1860
Compoundable offences under CRPC 320
Indian Evidence Act 1872
When Confession is irrelevant in Proceedings
Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 (NI Act)
Time Limit to file complaint u/s 138 of NI Act
Documents Complaint on a Company u/s 138
Remedies in case cheque stopped by drawer