Plea Of Alibi Can't Be Considered At Stage Of Cognizance Under S.319 CrPC: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has rejected a plea challenging cognizance taken by the District Court against the petitioners-accused for rioting and murder, opining that the plea of alibi cannot be considered at the stage of taking cognizance, and it had to be proved by the accused at the appropriate stage of defence.

The FIR mentioned the name of the petitioners, and during the course of investigation, the petitioners were arrested and their presence at the place of occurrence of alleged incident was found to be doubtful. Based on this, an application under Section 169 CrPC was filed by them requiring release based on insufficient evidence. This application was accepted.

Subsequently, when the trial proceeded in relation to other accused persons, an application was filed by the respondent under Section 319 CrPC, to proceed against the petitioners as well. This application was accepted by the District Court, and cognizance was taken against the petitioners.

This order was challenged before the Court on the ground that the same was done without looking at the reasons or the evidence collected by the Investigating Agency which reflected that they were not present at the place of occurrence at the time of the incident.

On the contrary, it was submitted by the counsel of the respondent that the merits of the evidence was not required to be considered at the time of taking cognizance, but only during trial by cross-examination.

After hearing the contentions, the bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed that the only reason for doubting petitioners' presence at the scene of alleged incident, was that certain call details of their mobile phones did not reflect such presence.

However, it was opined that the plea of alibi was a matter of defence and was required to be established during trial, not at the stage of summoning.

“In the considered opinion of this Court, at this stage more than prima facie case is required to be seen against the accused not charge-sheeted. The merits and the defence of the accused cannot be appreciated at this initial stage of taking cognizance. The defence, so put by the accused, with regard to his plea of alibi that they were not present at the place of occurrence would be taken into account by the Trial Court at the appropriate stage of trial. There is much more prima facie evidence available on the record for summoning them to face the trial.”

In this background, the petitions were rejected.

Title: Vikram Sharma & Anr. v State of Rajasthan & Anr.

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 127

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