BLS LLB 5 Years Sem 9 CRPC 2019-20 Question Paper with Solutions

Section 2(b) of the Code provides that "charge" includes any head of charge when the charge contains more heads than one. The Code gives no fuller definition. In substance a charge is the precise written formulation of the accusation which the accused is required to answer, framed by the court under sections 211 to 214, read and explained to him, and to which he pleads.

The heading is section 8 of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, "Variation of conditions of probation". On the application of a probation officer, the court which passed an order under section 4 may, if it is of opinion that it is expedient or necessary in the interests of the offender and the public, vary the bond at any time while it is effective, by extending or diminishing its duration, so that it does not exceed three years from the date of the original order, or by altering its conditions or inserting additional ones, and it shall not do so without giving the offender and his sureties an opportunity of being heard.

Section 8(2): if a surety refuses to consent to the variation, the court may require the offender to enter into a fresh bond, and if he refuses or fails to do so, it may sentence him for the offence of which he was found guilty.

Section 133 does not define public nuisance; it gives a Magistrate the power to remove one by a conditional order. It provides that whenever a District Magistrate, Sub-divisional Magistrate or Executive Magistrate specially empowered considers, on receiving a police report or other information and on taking such evidence as he thinks fit, that:

1. any unlawful obstruction or nuisance should be removed from any public place or from any way, river or channel lawfully used by the public;
2. the conduct of any trade or occupation, or the keeping of any goods or merchandise, is injurious to the health or physical comfort of the community and should be prohibited or regulated;
3. the construction of any building, or the disposal of any substance, is likely to occasion conflagration or explosion;
4. any building, tent, structure, tree or bank is likely to fall and cause injury and should be removed, repaired or supported;

Section 41 of the Code sets out when a police officer may arrest without a warrant and without an order of a Magistrate. The principal cases are: a person who commits a cognizable offence in his presence, section 41(1)(a); a person against whom a reasonable complaint, credible information or reasonable suspicion exists of a cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, where the officer records his satisfaction that the arrest is necessary on one of the five grounds in section 41(1)(b)(ii); and a person against whom credible information exists of a cognizable offence punishable with more than seven years or with death, section 41(1)(ba).

Section 13(1) of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 provides that a probation officer under the Act shall be a person appointed to be a probation officer by the State Government or recognised as such by it; or a person provided for the purpose by a society recognised in that behalf by the State Government; or, in any exceptional case, any other person who in the opinion of the court is fit to act as a probation officer in the special circumstances of the case.

6. who does not have parents and no one is willing to take care of him, or whose parents have abandoned or surrendered him, or who is missing or a run away child, or whose parents cannot be found after making reasonable inquiry;
7. who has been or is being or is likely to be abused, tortured or exploited for the purpose of sexual abuse or illegal acts;
8. who is found vulnerable and is likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking;
9. who is being or is likely to be abused for unconscionable gains;
10. who is a victim of or affected by any armed conflict, civil unrest or natural calamity;
11. who is at imminent risk of marriage before attaining the age of marriage and whose parents, family members, guardian or any other person are likely to be responsible for the solemnisation of such marriage.

The authority. Such a child is produced before the Child Welfare Committee, constituted for every district under section 27, consisting of a Chairperson and four members of whom at least one shall be a woman and another an expert on matters concerning children, with the powers of a Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the first class.

An accomplice is a guilty associate or partner in the crime: a person who has himself participated in the offence charged and is then produced as a witness for the prosecution against those who took part with him. The Code does not define him; his position rests on two provisions of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

Section 133: an accomplice shall be a competent witness against an accused person, and a conviction is not illegal merely because it proceeds upon the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.

Illustration (b) to section 114: the court may presume that an accomplice is unworthy of credit unless he is corroborated in material particulars.

How they fit together. Section 133 is a rule of law, illustration (b) a rule of prudence, and the settled practice, stated in Bhiva Doulu Patil v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1963 SC 599, is that the rule of prudence has become so well established that a court will practically always look for corroboration before convicting on accomplice evidence.

The four rules of corroboration, from R. v. Baskerville as adopted in India:

Conclusion. The law about an accomplice is an attempt to hold two things together. His evidence is admitted because in a conspiracy or a gang crime he is often the only person who can describe the offence from inside, and it is distrusted because he has the strongest imaginable motive to shift the blame and to buy his own freedom. The resolution is that his evidence is competent and a conviction on it is not illegal, but a court will not act on it unless independent evidence connects the accused with the crime.

he shall immediately give intimation to the nearest Executive Magistrate empowered to hold inquests, and, unless otherwise directed, shall proceed to the place where the body is, and there, in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood, shall make an investigation and draw up a report of the apparent cause of death, describing the wounds, fractures, bruises and other marks of injury as may be found on the body, and stating in what manner, or by what weapon or instrument, such marks appear to have been inflicted.

Section 174(2): the report shall be signed by the police officer and the other persons and forwarded to the District Magistrate or the Sub-divisional Magistrate.

Section 176(1): where the case is of the nature referred to in clause (i) or clause (ii) of section 174(3), the nearest Magistrate empowered to hold inquests shall, and in any other case mentioned in section 174(1) any Magistrate so empowered may, hold an inquiry into the cause of death either instead of or in addition to the investigation held by the police officer.

Section 176(1A), inserted by the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2005: where a person dies or disappears, or rape is alleged to have been committed on any woman, while such person or woman is in the custody of the police or in any other custody authorised by a Magistrate or court, the Judicial Magistrate or Metropolitan Magistrate within whose local jurisdiction the offence has been committed shall hold an inquiry in addition to the inquiry or investigation held by the police.

Section 176(2): the Magistrate holding such an inquiry shall record the evidence taken in connection with it. Section 176(3): he may disinter the body for examination. Section 176(4): where the inquiry is into the cause of a death, he shall wherever practicable inform the relatives of the deceased and allow them to remain present. Section 176(5): the body shall be forwarded for examination within twenty-four hours of the death, unless it is not possible for reasons to be recorded in writing.

Section 439 of the Code is headed "Special powers of High Court or Court of Session regarding bail", and it confers a power wider than any Magistrate's.

Section 439(1)(a): a High Court or Court of Session may direct that any person accused of an offence and in custody be released on bail, and if the offence is of the nature specified in section 437(3), may impose any condition which it considers necessary for the purposes mentioned in that sub-section.

The first proviso: the High Court or the Court of Session shall, before granting bail to a person accused of an offence triable exclusively by the Court of Session or which, though not so triable, is punishable with imprisonment for life, give notice of the application for bail to the Public Prosecutor, unless it is, for reasons to be recorded in writing, of opinion that it is not practicable to give such notice.

Section 439(1)(b): it may direct that any condition imposed by a Magistrate when releasing a person on bail be set aside or modified.

Section 438 is the other special power: anticipatory bail is available only from the High Court or the Court of Session, and not from a Magistrate at all. On an application by a person who has reason to believe that he may be arrested on an accusation of having committed a non-bailable offence, the court may direct that in the event of arrest he shall be released on bail, after considering the nature and gravity of the accusation, the antecedents of the applicant, the possibility of his fleeing from justice, and whether the accusation has been made with the object of injuring or humiliating him. Section 438(4) excludes anticipatory bail altogether for offences under sections 376(3), 376AB, 376DA and 376DB.

Conclusion. The special powers exist because the Code accepts that the discretion to release a person accused of the gravest offences should be exercised by a superior court and not by every Magistrate. Their three practical features are: a wider power to grant, unfettered by section 437's prohibition; a power to modify a Magistrate's conditions; and a power to cancel bail already granted, which no Magistrate has over the bail granted by another court. Together with section 438, they make the Court of Session and the High Court the real forum for bail in serious cases.

Section 374 of the Code, headed "Appeals from convictions", gives the convicted person his right of appeal, and the forum depends on the court that convicted him.

Section 374(1): any person convicted on a trial held by a High Court in its extraordinary original criminal jurisdiction may appeal to the Supreme Court.

Section 374(2): any person convicted on a trial held by a Sessions Judge or an Additional Sessions Judge, or on a trial held by any other court in which a sentence of imprisonment for more than seven years has been passed against him or against any other person convicted at the same trial, may appeal to the High Court.

Section 374(3): save as otherwise provided in sub-section (2), any person:

1. convicted on a trial held by a Metropolitan Magistrate, or an Assistant Sessions Judge, or a Magistrate of the first class, or a Magistrate of the second class; or

Section 376, no appeal in petty cases. No appeal shall lie where a High Court passes a sentence of imprisonment not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees or both; where a Court of Session or a Metropolitan Magistrate passes a sentence of imprisonment not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees or both; where a Magistrate of the first class passes a sentence of fine not exceeding one hundred rupees; or where in a summary trial by a Magistrate specially empowered, a sentence of fine not exceeding two hundred rupees is passed. The proviso allows an appeal if any other punishment is combined with such a sentence, and no sentence shall be appealable merely on the ground that the person was ordered to furnish security to keep the peace, or that a direction for imprisonment in default of payment of fine was included.

Section 380, special right of appeal. Notwithstanding anything in this Chapter, when more persons than one are convicted in one trial and an appealable judgment or order has been passed in respect of any of them, all or any of the persons convicted at that trial shall have a right of appeal.

Conclusion. An appeal from a conviction is the ordinary route by which a criminal verdict is tested, and the Code gives it generously at the level of substance and grudgingly at the level of triviality: any person convicted by a Court of Session may go to the High Court, but a man fined a hundred rupees by a Magistrate may not appeal at all, and a man who pleaded guilty may appeal only about his sentence. The most valuable limit for a candidate to remember is in section 386: on the convict's own appeal the court may reduce the sentence but may never increase it, because enhancement requires the State's appeal under section 377 or revision, and in either case the accused must first be heard.

Section 18, Special Metropolitan Magistrates: the High Court may, if requested by the Central or State Government, confer on a person who holds or has held any post under the Government all or any of the powers of a Metropolitan Magistrate, for a term not exceeding one year at a time.

Section 19: the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and every Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate are subordinate to the Sessions Judge, and every other Metropolitan Magistrate is subordinate to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, subject to the general control of the Sessions Judge.

B. Sentencing power: section 29.

Section 29(4): the court of a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate shall have the powers of the court of a Chief Judicial Magistrate, and that of a Metropolitan Magistrate the powers of the court of a Magistrate of the first class.

So a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate may pass any sentence authorised by law except death, imprisonment for life, or imprisonment for a term exceeding seven years, section 29(1).

A Metropolitan Magistrate may pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or a fine not exceeding ten thousand rupees, or both, section 29(2).

Conclusion. A Metropolitan Magistrate is a Judicial Magistrate of the first class wearing a different name because he sits in a city of more than a million people, with one significant difference: his jurisdiction runs throughout the metropolitan area rather than being confined to a sub-division, and the metropolitan area is itself a single sessions division and district. His sentencing power, three years or ten thousand rupees, is that of a first class Magistrate; his Chief's power, seven years, is that of a Chief Judicial Magistrate; and both are appointed by and subordinate to the High Court, which is the Code's expression of the separation of the judiciary from the executive.

Further the Court ordered Vicky's release after admonition under Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, because there was no previous conviction of the accused Vicky and the theft was committed due to sudden temptation without any premeditation.

(i) Probation defined, and the validity of this order.

Probation is the release of a convicted offender by the court, instead of sentencing him, on his entering into a bond to be of good behaviour, ordinarily under the supervision of a probation officer, on the footing that his reform is better secured in the community than in prison. It is a suspension of the sentence, not of the conviction: the finding of guilt stands.

One caution on the marks. Section 380 is punishable with imprisonment of either description up to seven years and a fine. That is irrelevant here, because section 3's first limb names section 380 by number, and the two-year ceiling applies only to the residuary class of offences that the section does not name. A candidate who applies the two-year limit to section 380 and concludes that probation was unavailable has misread the section.

(ii) The powers of the court to release offenders on probation.

Section 3, release after admonition. As set out above. Its effect is that the matter ends: no bond, no supervision, no continuing liability to be sentenced.

Section 4, release on probation of good conduct. Where a person is found guilty of an offence not punishable with death or imprisonment for life, and the court is of opinion, having regard to the circumstances including the nature of the offence and the character of the offender, that it is expedient to release him on probation of good conduct, the court may, instead of sentencing him at once, direct his release on his entering into a bond, with or without sureties, to appear and receive sentence when called upon during a period not exceeding three years, and in the meantime to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

Section 11, the order may be made by any court competent to try and sentence the offender, and also by the High Court or any other court when the case comes before it in appeal or revision.

Section 5, the court may in addition order the payment of compensation for loss or injury and the costs of the proceedings. Section 12 provides that a person dealt with under section 3 or section 4 shall not suffer the disqualification attaching to a conviction. Section 9 provides for breach of the bond, on which the court may sentence him for the original offence.

Conclusion. The order in Vicky's case is valid on the face of the Act: section 380 is one of the five offences named in section 3, no previous conviction was proved, and the reasons recorded, sudden temptation without premeditation, are exactly the kind of circumstance the section directs the court to consider. Had the court wished to keep some hold over him it could have proceeded under section 4 instead, releasing him on a three-year bond with supervision; and had he been under twenty-one, section 6 would have obliged it to justify in writing any decision to imprison him. Whichever route is taken, section 12 ensures that Vicky carries no disqualification from the conviction.

Name the offence and the source of the compensation first, because two figures in the question depend on them. Dishonour of a cheque is an offence under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with a fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or with both. It is a complaint offence: section 142 requires the complaint to be made in writing by the payee or holder in due course within one month of the cause of action, which is why the question opens with X filing a complaint and not with an FIR. The sentence of two years is therefore the statutory maximum. The compensation of 50,000 is awarded under section 357(3) of the Code, which allows a court imposing a sentence of which fine forms no part to order the accused to pay compensation for the loss or injury caused by the offence.

(i) No. Section 397(3) bars a second revision by the same person.

Section 397(1) gives concurrent revisional jurisdiction to the High Court and the Sessions Judge. Section 397(3) then provides: if an application under this section has been made by any person either to the High Court or to the Sessions Judge, no further application by the same person shall be entertained by the other of them.

The High Court's suo motu power, section 401 read with section 397(1). The bar in section 397(3) operates on an application; it does not take away the High Court's power to call for the record of its own motion. X may bring the matter to the High Court's notice and invite it to act suo motu, though he cannot demand it.

Section 482. The High Court's inherent power is preserved, but it will not be used to defeat the express bar in section 397(3): Krishnan v. Krishnaveni, (1997) 4 SCC 241, holds that the High Court may exercise its power under section 482 or under Article 227 in an exceptional case where there is a glaring defect in the procedure or a manifest error of law causing a flagrant miscarriage of justice, but that this is not a routine second revision.

(ii) Yes. Y is not the same person as X, and section 397(3) does not bar him.

Section 397(3) bars a further application by the same person. Y has made no application at all. The order of the Sessions Court enhancing the compensation was made against him and to his prejudice, so he is aggrieved by it and may move the High Court in revision under sections 397 and 401.

Both limbs are answered by section 394 of the Code, "Abatement of appeals", and the two sub-sections give opposite results.

(i) The State's appeal against Y's acquittal abates absolutely.

Section 394(1): every appeal under section 377 or section 378 shall finally abate on the death of the accused.

But the proviso rescues it: where the appeal is against a conviction and sentence of death or of imprisonment, and the appellant dies during the pendency of the appeal, any of his near relatives may, within thirty days of the death of the appellant, apply to the Appellate Court for leave to continue the appeal; and if leave is granted, the appeal shall not abate.

X was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life, so the proviso applies. The Explanation defines "near relative" as a parent, spouse, lineal descendant, brother or sister.

The advice to X's relatives is therefore precise:

1. the applicant must be a near relative as defined, that is a parent, spouse, lineal descendant, brother or sister of X; a cousin, a nephew or a friend will not do;
2. the application must be made to the Appellate Court, that is the court in which the appeal is pending;
3. it must be made within thirty days of X's death;
4. leave is discretionary, and if granted the appeal proceeds to be heard on the merits as though X were alive.

Section 13(3): a probation officer, in the exercise of his duties under the Act, shall be subject to the control of the district magistrate of the district in which the offender for the time being resides.

Section 15: probation officers appointed under the Act shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.

Section 16 grants protection of action taken in good faith: no suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against the State Government or any probation officer or other person in respect of anything done or intended to be done in good faith in pursuance of the Act.

B. His duties: section 14.

Section 14 provides that a probation officer shall, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed:

1. inquire, in accordance with any directions of a court, into the circumstances or home surroundings of any person accused of an offence, with a view to assisting the court in determining the most suitable method of dealing with him, and submit reports to the court;
2. supervise probationers and other persons placed under his supervision and, where necessary, endeavour to find them suitable employment;

Section 11(3): an appellate court may call for the record of a case on an application made to it by the probation officer, where the trial court has declined to deal with an offender under twenty-one under section 3 or section 4.

D. Supervision.

Section 4(3): the court may, if it thinks fit, pass a supervision order directing that the offender remain under the supervision of a probation officer for a period not less than one year, and may impose such conditions as it thinks necessary. Section 4(4): the court shall require the offender to enter into a bond, with or without sureties, to observe the conditions. Section 4(5): the court shall explain the terms and conditions to the offender and furnish him forthwith with a copy of the supervision order.

Section 8: the court which passed the order, or the district magistrate, may vary the conditions of a bond and may extend or diminish the duration of the bond, so long as it does not exceed three years from the date of the original order; and may on an application by the probation officer discharge the bond.

E. What the report must contain in practice.

Conclusion. The probation officer is what makes the Act more than a sentencing discount. Section 14 gives him three quite different roles: he is the court's investigator before the order, inquiring into home surroundings and reporting; he is the offender's supervisor after it, including the practical work of finding him employment; and he is the victim's collector in between, assisting with the payment of compensation. The Act makes him a public servant under section 15, subjects him to the district magistrate under section 13(3), and in the one case where the stakes are highest, an offender under twenty-one, makes his report compulsory under section 6(2). Without him, sections 3 and 4 would be a discretion exercised on nothing.

Section 63, service on a corporation. Service may be effected by serving it on the secretary, local manager or other principal officer, or by letter sent by registered post addressed to the chief officer of the corporation in India, in which case service is deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in the ordinary course of post.

Section 64, service when the person cannot be found. The summons may be served by leaving one of the duplicates with some adult male member of his family residing with him, and the person with whom it is left shall, if so required, sign a receipt. The Explanation provides that a servant is not a member of the family.

Section 65, procedure when service cannot be effected. If service cannot by the exercise of due diligence be effected as provided in sections 62, 63 or 64, the serving officer shall affix one of the duplicates to some conspicuous part of the house in which the person ordinarily resides, and thereupon the court may, after making such inquiries as it thinks fit, either declare that the summons has been duly served or order fresh service.

Section 72, warrants ordinarily directed to police officers; section 73, warrant directed to any person for the arrest of an escaped convict, a proclaimed offender or a person accused of a non-bailable offence who is evading arrest; section 74, warrant directed to a police officer for execution outside jurisdiction; section 75, notification of substance of warrant, requiring the officer executing it to notify the substance to the person arrested and, if required, to show him the warrant; section 76, the person arrested to be brought before the court without unnecessary delay, and in no case beyond twenty-four hours exclusive of the time necessary for the journey; sections 77 to 81, execution outside the local jurisdiction and procedure on arrest beyond it.

C. Proclamation and attachment: sections 82 to 86.

Section 83, attachment of property. The court issuing a proclamation may, for reasons to be recorded, at any time after the issue of the proclamation, order the attachment of any property, movable or immovable, or both, belonging to the proclaimed person; and it may order attachment simultaneously with the issue of the proclamation where the person is about to dispose of the whole or any part of his property or to remove it from the local jurisdiction. Attachment of movable property is by seizure, appointment of a receiver, an order in writing prohibiting delivery, or all three; of immovable property, through the Collector where it is land paying revenue, and otherwise by taking possession, appointing a receiver, or an order in writing prohibiting the payment of rent.

Section 84, claims and objections to attachment, to be made within six months. Section 85, release, sale and restoration of attached property: if the proclaimed person appears within the time specified in the proclamation, the court shall release the property; if he does not, the property is at the disposal of the State Government, but shall not be sold until six months have expired and any claim under section 84 has been disposed of; and if within two years from the attachment he appears and satisfies the court that he did not abscond and had no notice, the property or the net sale proceeds shall be delivered to him.

3. He may be declared a proclaimed offender under section 82(4) in the listed offences, and, since 2005, section 174A of the Indian Penal Code makes the failure to appear in obedience to a proclamation an offence punishable with imprisonment up to three years or fine or both, and up to seven years where he has been declared a proclaimed offender.
4. A trial may proceed in his absence in the limited cases the Code allows: section 205 and section 317 where his attendance is dispensed with; and section 299, where it is proved that the accused has absconded and there is no immediate prospect of arresting him, the court may record the depositions of the prosecution witnesses in his absence, and those depositions may be given in evidence against him on his arrest if the deponent is dead, incapable of giving evidence or cannot be found.
5. His bond is forfeited, sections 89 and 446, and he may be arrested on breach of the bond.
6. If he is a witness rather than the accused, section 349 allows the court to detain a person refusing to answer or produce a document, and sections 174 and 350 of the Indian Penal Code punish non-attendance in obedience to a summons.

A. The classification: section 6.

Besides the High Courts and the courts constituted under any law other than the Code, there shall be in every State the following classes of Criminal Courts:

1. Courts of Session;
2. Judicial Magistrates of the first class and, in any metropolitan area, Metropolitan Magistrates;
3. Judicial Magistrates of the second class; and
4. Executive Magistrates.

B. The territorial units: sections 7 and 8.

Metropolitan Magistrates, sections 16 and 17. Established in every metropolitan area, presiding officers appointed by the High Court, with a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate and Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrates; their jurisdiction extends throughout the metropolitan area.

Special Magistrates, sections 13 and 18. The High Court may, at the request of the Central or State Government, confer the powers of a Judicial or Metropolitan Magistrate on a person who holds or has held a post under the Government, for not more than one year at a time; and such powers shall not be conferred on a police officer.

Executive Magistrates, sections 20 and 21. Appointed by the State Government in every district and metropolitan area, one of them being the District Magistrate, with Additional District Magistrates and Sub-divisional Magistrates, and Special Executive Magistrates for particular areas or functions.

D. The powers of each: sections 26 to 35.

2. a Sessions Judge or Additional Sessions Judge may pass any sentence authorised by law, but a sentence of death is subject to confirmation by the High Court;
3. an Assistant Sessions Judge may pass any sentence except death, imprisonment for life, or imprisonment exceeding ten years.

Section 29, sentences which Magistrates may pass.

1. a Chief Judicial Magistrate: any sentence except death, imprisonment for life, or imprisonment exceeding seven years;
2. a Magistrate of the first class: imprisonment up to three years, or fine up to ten thousand rupees, or both;
3. a Magistrate of the second class: imprisonment up to one year, or fine up to five thousand rupees, or both;
4. a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has the powers of a Chief Judicial Magistrate, and a Metropolitan Magistrate those of a Magistrate of the first class.

Section 30, sentence of imprisonment in default of fine. A Magistrate may award such imprisonment in excess of his ordinary powers, provided the term is not in excess of one fourth of the term of imprisonment he is competent to inflict, and it is in addition to any substantive sentence.

Conclusion. The Code arranges the criminal courts as a pyramid defined at every level by two things: who appoints and how much the court may inflict. The High Court appoints every judicial officer from the Sessions Judge down to the second class Magistrate, and the State Government appoints only the Executive Magistrates and the prosecutors, which is how the 1973 Code carried out the separation of the judiciary from the executive required by Article 50. Sentencing power then descends in five steps, from any sentence in the High Court and the Court of Session, through seven years in a Chief Judicial Magistrate and three in a first class Magistrate, to one year in a second class Magistrate, with sections 30 and 31 setting the outer limits for default sentences and for multiple convictions.

Section 320(1) sets out a table of offences under the Indian Penal Code which may be compounded by the person mentioned in the third column, without the permission of any court. Examples: causing hurt, section 323, by the person to whom the hurt is caused; wrongful restraint, section 341, by the person restrained; theft, section 379, by the owner of the property stolen; criminal trespass, section 447, by the person in possession of the property; house-trespass to commit an offence other than theft, section 451, by the person in possession of the house; criminal breach of contract of service, section 491, by the person with whom the offender contracted; defamation, section 500, by the person defamed; criminal intimidation, section 506, by the person intimidated.

The table also prints adultery, section 497, compoundable by the husband of the woman, but that entry is now dead: in Joseph Shine v. Union of India, (2019) 3 SCC 39, a Constitution Bench struck down section 497 of the Penal Code as unconstitutional, so there is no longer an offence to compound. Do not offer it as an example in an answer written today.

Section 320(4)(a): where the person who would otherwise be competent to compound is under the age of eighteen years, or is an idiot or a lunatic, any person competent to contract on his behalf may, with the permission of the court, compound the offence.

Section 320(4)(b): where the person competent to compound is dead, the legal representative of the deceased may, with the consent of the court, compound the offence.

Section 320(5): when the accused has been committed for trial or when he has been convicted and an appeal is pending, no composition for the offence shall be allowed without the leave of the court to which he is committed or, as the case may be, before which the appeal is to be heard.

Section 320(3): when an offence is compoundable, the abetment of such offence or an attempt to commit it, when such attempt is itself an offence, or where the accused is liable under section 34 or section 149 of the Penal Code, may be compounded in like manner.

D. Revision and the effect: sections 320(6) to (9).

Section 320(6): a High Court or Court of Session acting in the exercise of its powers of revision under section 401 may allow any person to compound any offence which he is competent to compound under the section.

Section 482, inherent powers of the High Court. A non-compoundable offence cannot be compounded, but the High Court may quash the proceedings where the parties have settled. In Gian Singh v. State of Punjab, (2012) 10 SCC 303, a three-judge Bench held that the power under section 482 is distinct from the power of compounding, is to be exercised to secure the ends of justice or prevent abuse of process, and is not to be exercised in heinous and serious offences of mental depravity, murder, rape or dacoity, however genuine the settlement; but that it may properly be exercised in matrimonial disputes, family disputes, and commercial, financial, mercantile or partnership disputes which are predominantly civil in flavour. In State of Madhya Pradesh v. Laxmi Narayan, (2019) 5 SCC 688, the Court set out guidelines confining the power to offences with a predominantly civil character and excluding offences under special statutes and by public servants in the discharge of official duty.

Section 258, power to stop proceedings, in a summons case instituted otherwise than on complaint, is another route by which a case may end without a composition.

A. The authority.

The Juvenile Justice Board is constituted under section 4 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 for every district, consisting of a Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial Magistrate of the first class as Principal Magistrate and two social workers of whom at least one shall be a woman, and has exclusive power under section 8(1) to deal with all proceedings relating to a child in conflict with law.

B. Orders before and during the inquiry.

Where the Board is satisfied on inquiry that a child irrespective of age has committed a petty offence or a serious offence, or a child below sixteen has committed a heinous offence, or a child above sixteen has committed a heinous offence and the Board has, after the preliminary assessment under section 15, disposed of the matter itself, then, based on the nature of the offence, the specific need for supervision or intervention, the circumstances brought out in the social investigation report and the past conduct of the child, the Board may:

1. allow the child to go home after advice or admonition, following appropriate inquiry and counselling of the child and of his parents or guardian;
2. direct the child to participate in group counselling and similar activities;
3. order the child to perform community service under the supervision of an organisation, institution or specified person or group;
4. order the child, or his parents or guardian, to pay a fine, with a proviso that where the child is working, the labour laws are not to be violated;

4. be prohibited from visiting, frequenting or appearing at a specified place; or
5. undergo a de-addiction programme.

E. The order of transfer: section 18(3).

Where the Board, after the preliminary assessment under section 15, passes an order that there is a need for trial of the child as an adult, it may order the transfer of the trial of the case to the Children's Court having jurisdiction. Section 19 then requires the Children's Court to decide the question again for itself, and if it decides that there is no need for trial as an adult, to conduct an inquiry as a Board and pass orders under section 18.

F. The limits on every order.

Section 21: no child in conflict with law shall be sentenced to death, or to life imprisonment without the possibility of release, for any offence, under this Act or under the Indian Penal Code or any other law.

Section 22: no proceeding shall be instituted and no order passed against a child under Chapter VIII of the Code, security for keeping the peace and for good behaviour.

Section 101(1): an appeal against an order of the Board lies to the Children's Court, within thirty days. Section 101(2): an appeal against an order of the Board relating to a preliminary assessment under section 15 lies to the Court of Sessions, which may take the assistance of experienced psychologists and medical experts. Section 101(4): no appeal lies against an order of the Board where the child is released on advice or admonition, or where an order of a Committee finds the person to be a child in need of care and protection. Section 102 gives the High Court a power of revision.

Cite Shilpa Mittal v. State (NCT of Delhi), (2020) 2 SCC 787, on the gateway itself. A heinous offence under section 2(33) is one for which the minimum punishment is imprisonment for seven years or more, so an offence whose maximum is seven years or more but which prescribes no minimum is not heinous and is dealt with as a serious offence under section 2(54). Only a heinous offence opens the section 15 preliminary assessment and the transfer under section 18(3), so the classification decides which of these orders the Board may pass at all.

Investigation is defined by section 2(h) as all the proceedings under the Code for the collection of evidence conducted by a police officer or by any person (other than a Magistrate) who is authorised by a Magistrate in this behalf. It is an executive function, and its procedure is in Chapter XII, sections 154 to 176.

Step 1. Information: section 154.

Every information relating to a cognizable offence, if given orally, shall be reduced to writing, read over to the informant and signed by him, and its substance entered in the station diary. A copy shall be given free of cost to the informant, section 154(2). Where the officer refuses to record it, the informant may move the Superintendent of Police, section 154(3), or the Magistrate under section 156(3). The 2013 provisos require a woman police officer to record the information in the sexual offence cases listed, and require it to be recorded at the residence of a disabled complainant with an interpreter and videography.

On reason to suspect a cognizable offence, the officer shall forthwith send a report to the Magistrate and shall proceed in person or depute a subordinate to the spot to investigate the facts and, if necessary, to take measures for the discovery and arrest of the offender. Proviso (a) allows him not to go in person where the case is not serious; proviso (b) allows him not to investigate at all where there is no sufficient ground, in which case he must record his reasons and notify the informant.

Step 4. Examination of witnesses: sections 160 to 163.

Section 160, written order requiring attendance, with the proviso protecting any man under fifteen or above sixty-five, any woman, and any mentally or physically disabled person from being required to attend anywhere but where they reside. Section 161, oral examination, the witness bound to answer truly except where the answer would expose him to a criminal charge, and the statement recorded separately for each person; the proviso requires a woman police officer to record the statement of a woman victim in the listed offences. Section 162, statements not to be signed and not to be used for any purpose except to contradict under section 145 of the Evidence Act. Section 163, no inducement, threat or promise.

Step 5. Confessions and statements before a Magistrate: sections 164 and 164A.

Step 7. Arrest and custody: sections 41, 41A, 57 and 167.

Arrest without warrant under section 41, on recorded satisfaction that it is necessary where the offence carries up to seven years, and a notice of appearance under section 41A where it is not; production before a Magistrate within twenty-four hours under section 57; and remand under section 167, which caps detention pending investigation at ninety days where the offence is punishable with death, life or not less than ten years, and sixty days otherwise, whereupon the accused shall be released on default bail if he is prepared to and does furnish bail.

Step 8. Release or forwarding: sections 169 and 170.

Section 169: if on investigation it appears there is not sufficient evidence or reasonable ground of suspicion, the officer shall release the accused on a bond to appear before the Magistrate if required. Section 170: if there is sufficient evidence, he shall forward the accused to a Magistrate empowered to take cognizance, and shall take security for the appearance of the complainant and witnesses.

Step 9. The record: section 172.

Step 11. Unnatural deaths: sections 174 to 176.

Section 174, the police inquest into a suicide, a death caused by another, by an animal, by machinery or by accident, or a death raising a reasonable suspicion of an offence, in the presence of two or more respectable inhabitants, with a post-mortem where there is any doubt or where a woman has died within seven years of her marriage. Section 176, the magisterial inquest, and section 176(1A), a mandatory judicial inquiry where a person dies or disappears or a woman is raped while in police custody.

Conclusion. The Code gives the investigating officer very wide powers and almost no supervision while he is using them, and then discounts almost everything he produces when the case reaches the court. He may register, investigate, summon, examine, search, seize and arrest largely on his own recorded satisfaction; but section 162 makes the statements he records usable only to contradict, section 25 of the Evidence Act makes a confession to him inadmissible, and section 172 keeps his diary out of evidence. The real checks are placed at the two ends: at the beginning by Lalita Kumari's rule that an FIR must be registered, and at the end by the twenty-four hour and sixty or ninety day limits in sections 57 and 167 and by the report under section 173, on which the Magistrate, and not the police, decides whether there will be a trial.