Criminal Court Can Frame Charge By Excluding Offences Included In Final Report & Including Offences Not Included In It: Kerala HC
The Kerala High Court observed that the Criminal Court can frame charges for the offences made out from the prosecution records, excluding the offences incorporated by the Police in the Final Report and also including any offence/s not included by the Police in the Final Report.
The Court was hearing a Criminal Revision Petition filed under Sections 438 and 442 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, to set aside the charge framed by the Special Court for the trial of cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The bench of Justice A Badharudeen observed, “Criminal Court can frame charge for the offence/s made out from the prosecution records, excluding the offence/s incorporated by the Police in the Final Report and also including any offence/s not included by the Police in the Final Report.”
Advocate MR Sasith appeared for the Appellant and Senior PP Renjit George appeared for the Respondent.
Brief Facts-
In the present case, there were allegations of sexual assault of the minor girl aged 4 and half years, by the driver of the school van who used to take the minor to the school regularly. The Police filed a Final Report alleging the commission of offences punishable under Section 354(B) of IPC, under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act and Sections 8 read with 7, 10 read with 9(m) and 9(n) of the POCSO Act, by the Revision Petitioner/accused. After the filing of the Final Report, the trial court framed two charges.
The Court considered whether a Criminal Court is empowered to frame a charge for the offence/s, for which, the Police failed to file a Final Report.
The Court perused Sections 228 and 240 of the CrPC and observed, “…after consideration of the prosecution records, if the Judge is of the opinion that there is ground for presuming that the accused has committed an offence, the Judge can frame charge for the said offence, disclosed from the prosecution records.”
Accordingly, the Court dismissed the Revision Petition.
Cause Title: Muhammad Iliyas v. State of Kerala (Neutral Citation: 2024:KER:74330)
Appearance:
Appellant: Advocates MR Sasith, MR Sarin, RK Chirutha, Anjana Suresh E., Parvathi Krishna, Reethu Jacob, Riya Kochumman, Nanma BB and Lidhiya George
Respondent: Senior PP Renjith George
