1.Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. Leave granted.
2.Heard Shri Ram Naresh Yadav learned Counsel for the appellant/complainant, Shri Vishal Mahajan, Deputy Advocate General for the State/Respondent No.1 and Shri Shreeyash U. Lalit learned Counsel for Respondent No.2.
3.The appellant before this Court was the informant in NEETA SAPRA Sessions Judge, Sirsa, Haryana, under Sections 458, 460, 323, 302, 148, 149 and 285 of IPC, 1860 read with Section 25 of Arms Act, 1959. The incident is of 12:30 mid night dated 07.09.2017 which occurred at Sirsa, Haryana. The First Information Report reveals that there were in total fifteen assailants which had broke open the complainant’s house, in the middle of the night and had come in order to assault the inmates of the house. Out of these assailants seven have been named who were armed with lathi and three of the named assailants/accused namely Ramesh Gandhi, Kalu Jakhar and Pawan were armed with gun and pistols respectively. Police after investigation had filed chargesheet against nine persons, but not against Ramesh Gandhi, Kalu Jakhar or Pawan whose names were placed in column 2 of the chargesheet. After the trial had commenced and the complainant was being examined as PW-9, he disclosed the entire event as an eye witness in his examination-in-chief, where he has unambiguously assigned the roles to these three assailants as well, who were named in the FIR but not made accused in the chargesheet, that is, Ramesh Gandhi (respondent No.2), Kalu Jakhar and Pawan.
4.Immediately thereafter an application was moved
before the Court by the Appellant under Section 319 Code of
Criminal Procedure, for summoning these three persons
Ramesh Gandhi, Kalu Jakhar and Pawan as accused so
that they may also face the trial. This application as we
have already stated was allowed, but the order was set aside
by the High Court in Revision.
Before we examine the scope of Section 319 of Code of
Criminal Procedure, it would be relevant to go through the
statement given by PW-9, complainant, in his examination
in chief as that forms the basis for summoning the three
persons. PW-9 states in his examination-in-chief that on
07.09.2017, he along with his younger brother Pradeep
Kumar and his cousin Bijender was sleeping in the court
yard of their house, after having dinner. His father,
Hanuman (deceased), was also sleeping in the court yard.
The main gate of the house was bolted. His uncle Subhash,
Jaibir and Raj Kumar were also sleeping in their houses. At
about 12:30 i.e. in the middle of the night fifteen persons
entered their house having ‘lathi’ and ‘danda’ in their hands,
from the adjacent room by breaking the chain. Two were
having pistols in their hand which could be seen in the light
of the bulb. He then goes on to say that while Ramesh
Gandhi was having a gun, Kalu Jakhar and Pawan were
armed with pistols and remaining were having lathis and
dandas. They first exhorted and then started beating all of
them and threatened that today they will teach them a
lesson, for selling liquor. When they were inflicting blows on
the three of them his father Hanuman came to their rescue,
to whom Subhash gave a blow from his lathi. He then states
that all the accused were inflicting injuries on his father,
and when they finally left the house, they left after firing
from their weapons. These are the essential details of his
slightly longer narration.
Section 319 of Cr.PC reads as under:
“319. Power to proceed against other
persons appearing to be guilty of
offence.—
(1) Where, in the course of any inquiry
into, or trial of, an offence, it appears from
the evidence that any person not being
the accused has committed any offence
for which such person could be tried
together with the accused, the Court may
proceed against such person for the
offence which he appears to have
committed.
(2) Where such person is not attending the
Court, he may be arrested or summoned,
as the circumstances of the case may
require, for the purpose aforesaid.
(3) Any person attending the Court,
although not under arrest or upon a
summons, may be detained by such Court
for the purpose of the inquiry into, or trial
of, the offence which he appears to have
committed.
(4) Where the Court proceeds against any
person under sub-section (1) then—
(a) the proceedings in respect of such
person shall be commenced afresh, and
the witnesses re-heard;
(b) subject to the provisions of clause (a),
the case may proceed as if such person
had been an accused person when the
Court took cognizance of the offence upon
which the inquiry or trial was
commenced.”
Sub-section (1) of Section 319 leaves it to the judicial
discretion of the Court, where the trial is proceeding to
summon a person as an accused (who is so far not an
accused in trial), if evidence has appeared before the Court
that such a person has committed an offence for which he
should be tried together with the other accused. This
judicial discretion is extremely limited by the circumstances
which have been stated in sub-section (1) of Section 319.
We have already referred to the statement given by PW-9,
(an eye-witness) in his examination-in-chief. To our mind
the Court had no alternative here but to summon the
accused persons, considering that now it had an evidence
before it in the form of the statement of PW-9.
Pursuant to the summoning order out of the three
accused who have been summoned only one of them, i.e.,
Ramesh Gandhi who is Respondent No. 2 had filed a
Revision before the Punjab & Haryana High Court which
was allowed by order dated 02.03.2022
In our considered opinion the High Court has not
appreciated the matter in the true perspective of Section
319 Cr.P.C. The revision of Shri Ramesh Gandhi (one of the
three accused who were summoned), was allowed for the
reasons that he was found innocent during investigation
and that he never used the gun and had actually fled from
the spot. These observations are even factually incorrect,
from what we have just seen in the examination-in-chief of
PW-9, the revisionist had fled the scene only after the
commission of the crime by an “unlawful assembly”. In his
statement (PW-9), it has further come that while leaving the
house firing was also done. Further, totally uncalled for
presumption has been made by the High Court in favour of
the revisionist, declaring him to be innocent.
The High Court has reasoned as follows :-
“The petitioner was found innocent during
investigation. It could not even be
established on record whether the petitioner
was attributed any injury and even as per
the version of the complainant himself, the
petitioner had allegedly fled away from the
spot. Thus, the material on record, does not
make it a fit case to summon the petitioner
as an additional accused.
The matter can be looked from another
angle. It is the case of the complainant that
the petitioner armed with a gun had come to
the place of occurrence along with other co-
accused. However, it does not seem to the
common prudence that a person coming
with a premediated mind at the spot with a
gun, would flee without even firing or
attempt a shot. This clearly points towards
a false implication of the petitioner.”
In our opinion, whereas the trial court was absolutely
correct to have summoned the accused based on the
evidence of PW-9, the High Court committed a grave error in
allowing the revision of the accused. Under the facts and
circumstances of the case and on the powers of the Court
under Section 319 and based on the evidence of PW-9, it
was absolutely necessary for the trial court to have
summoned the three accused, including the revisionist.
The reasoning given by the High Court, cannot be
accepted at the stage of consideration of application under
Section 319 Cr.PC. The merits of the evidence has to be
appreciated only during the trial, by cross examination of
the witnesses and scrutiny of the Court. This is not to be
done at the stage of Section 319, though this is precisely
what the High Court has done in the present case.
Moreover, the High Court did not appreciate the important
fact that the charges being faced by the accused were under
Sections 458, 460, 323, 285, 302, 148 and 149 of IPC.
Thus, one of the charges being Section 149, which is of
being a member of an unlawful assembly, for attracting the
offence under Section 149 IPC, one simply has to be a part
of an unlawful assembly. Any specific individual role or act
is not material. [See : 2021 SCC OnLine SC 632-Manjeet
Singh v. State of Haryana & Ors., Para 38].
A plain reading of Section 149 IPC (read with Section
141 IPC), makes it clear that no overt act needs to be
assigned to a member of an unlawful assembly. “Even if no
overt act is imputed to a particular person when the charge is
under Section 149 IPC, the presence of the accused as part of
an unlawful assembly is sufficient for conviction”. [See :
Yunis alias Kariya v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 2003
SC 539]
The entire purpose of criminal trial is to go to the
truth of the matter. Once there is satisfaction of the Court
that there is evidence before it that an accused has
committed an offence, the court can proceed against such a
person. At the stage of summoning an accused, there has to
be a prima facie satisfaction of the Court. The evidence
which was there before the Court was of an eye witness who
has clearly stated before the Court that a crime has been
committed, inter alia, by the revisionist. The Court need not
cross-examine this witness. It can stop the trial at that
stage itself if such application had been moved under
Section 319. The detail examination of the witness and
other witnesses is a subject matter of the trial which has to
begin afresh. The scope and ambit of Section 319 CrPC has
been discussed and dealt with in detail in the Constitution
Bench judgment of Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab and
Others reported in (2014) 3 SCC 92 where it said:
“12. Section 319 CrPC springs out of the
doctrine judex damnatur cum nocens
absolvitur (Judge is condemned when
guilty is acquitted) and this doctrine must
be used as a beacon light while
explaining the ambit and the spirit
underlying the enactment of Section 319
Cr. PC.
13. It is the duty of the court to do justice
by punishing the real culprit. Where the
investigating agency for any reason does
not array one of the real culprits as an
accused, the court is not powerless in
calling the said accused to face trial.”
5.In Hardeep Singh (supra), this court further said that the Court only has to see at the state of Section 319, whether a prima facie case is made out although the degree of satisfaction has to be much higher. “95. At the time of taking cognizance, the court has to see whether a prima facie case is made out to proceed against the accused. Under Section 319 CrPC, though the test of prima facie case is the same, the degree of satisfaction that is required is much stricter. A two-Judge Bench of this Court in Vikas v. State of Rajasthan, held that on the objective satisfaction of the court a person may be “arrested” or “summoned”, as the circumstances of the case may require, if it appears from the evidence that any such person not being the accused has committed an offence for which such person could be tried together with the already arraigned accused persons. In Para 106 it stated as under: Thus, we hold that though only a prima facie case is to be established from the evidence led before the court, not necessarily tested on the anvil of crossexamination, it requires much stronger evidence than mere probability of his complicity. The test that has to be applied is one which is more than prima facie case as exercised at the time of framing of charge, but short of satisfaction to an extent that the evidence, if goes unrebutted, would lead to conviction. In the absence of such satisfaction, the court should refrain from exercising power under Section 319 CrPC. In Section 319 CrPC the purpose of providing if “it appears from the evidence that any person not being the accused has committed any offence” it is clear from the words “for which such person could be tried together with the accused”. The words used are not “for which such person could be convicted”. There is, therefore, no scope for the court acting under Section 319 CrPC to form any opinion as to the guilt of the accused.” In our considered opinion, the prosecution had fully made out its case for summoning the three as accused under Section 319, Cr.PC, so that they may also face trial.
6.Under these circumstances, the appeal is allowed and the order of the High Court dated 02.03.2022, is hereby set aside. It is further directed that the trial shall proceed now in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible. [C.T. RAVIKUMAR] . [SUDHANSHU DHULIA] New Delhi, July 28, 2023.