498A IPC | Magistrate Can't Take Cognizance Merely On Superintendent's Note If Accused Given Clean Chit In Chargesheet: Telangana HC

The Telangana High Court has held that a Magistrate cannot take cognizance against those accused, against whom a chargesheet is not filed, merely based on a note affixed by the Superintendent of Police on the said charge sheet.

Justice K Surender going further has explained that cognizance cannot be taken against those individuals against whom the investigation did not reveal any cognizable offence. Furthermore, he has iterated that in case the defacto complainant is aggrieved by the findings of the investigation, they are free to file a protest petition. Following which, the Magistrate is bound to record in writing the reasons for summoning the accused against whom no cognizable evidence is found.

The accused had approached the court seeking quashing of proceedings initiated against them under section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. A1 is the husband of the de-facto complaint and the rest of the accused are his family.

The wife had registered a police complaint against the accused alleging that she was harassed for dowry and beaten regularly. Upon conducting an investigation, the official found a cognizable case against the husband of the de facto complainant, but not his relatives. Accordingly a charge sheet was filed only against A1, requesting to drop charges against the other accused.

Curiously, the Superintendent of Police had affixed a note at the bottom of the chargesheet that read: 'the charge sheet was checked and found in order. As per report and statement of the defacto complainant, A2 to A5 have also harassed the defacto complainant.' The Magistrate on the basis of this note had affixed a format sheet on the chargesheet registering it as a CC against all accused.

Justice Surender noted: "The said note of the Superintendent on the charge sheet will not suffice to take cognizance of the offence against whom the Police did not find any evidence during the course of investigation. In the event of dropping proceedings by the Police during investigation, it is incumbent on the Magistrate to issue notice to the complainant regarding dropping of proceedings against the accused."

Court explained that if the complainant files a Protest Petition, the Magistrate has to follow the procedure under Section 200 of the Cr.P.C. "The Magistrate shall record the evidence of witnesses and thereafter has to record his satisfaction as to why the accused against whom Police has found no evidence, have to be summoned, to be tried in the case. No such procedure was followed in the present case. The Act of learned Magistrate in directing issuing of summons against the petitioners herein/A2 to A5, on the basis of note put up by the Superintendent, is found fault with."

Accordingly, petitions filed by the family of the accused husband were allowed.

Counsel for petitioner: Y. Randheer.

Counsel for respondent: PP

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Tel) 01

Crlp 8489 of 2018

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