The Court's General Powers During a Trial

In one line

These nine sections are the machinery a trial judge uses while the trial is running: when he may adjourn it, whom he may call, what he may ask the accused, and what he may not do to him.

In exam wording: sections 346 to 354 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 confer the general powers exercisable in the course of any inquiry or trial, of which section 351, the power to examine the accused, is the most important.

Why the law has this at all

Because the chapters before this one describe procedures, and a procedure needs somebody able to run it.

A trial is not a machine that advances by itself. Witnesses fail to come. Evidence turns out to need a look at the place. A vital witness was never cited by either side. The accused, who has heard weeks of evidence against him, has never been asked a single question about it. Each of these needs a power, and this Part supplies them.

There is also a theme running through the Part, and it is worth naming because it explains three separate sections. The accused may be questioned, but not pressured. Section 351 lets the Court question him without oath and protects him from any penalty for refusing or lying. Section 353 lets him testify only if he asks in writing, and forbids comment on his silence. Section 354 forbids any promise or threat to make him disclose or withhold anything. Sections 343 and 344, the pardon sections, are the one lawful exception, and section 354 names them as such.

Some words this chapter uses

Adjournment is the postponement of a proceeding already begun; postponement here is of its commencement.

A local inspection is the judge's own visit to a place, and its product is a memorandum, not evidence of a witness.

Examination-in-chief is the party's own questioning of its witness; cross-examination is the other side's.

A competent witness is a person the law allows to testify.

Section 346: adjournments, and the new limits

Sub-section (1), the day-to-day rule. In every inquiry or trial the proceedings shall be continued from day-to-day basis until all the witnesses in attendance have been examined, unless the Court finds an adjournment beyond the following day necessary, for reasons to be recorded.

The proviso, and it is new. Where the inquiry or trial relates to an offence under section 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70 or 71 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the inquiry or trial shall be completed within a period of two months from the date of filing of the chargesheet.

Sub-section (2), the power itself. If the Court, after taking cognizance or after commencement of trial, finds it necessary or advisable, it may from time to time, for reasons to be recorded, postpone or adjourn on such terms as it thinks fit for such time as it considers reasonable, and may by warrant remand the accused if in custody.