What Is a Criminal Trial?

What is criminal procedure? Keep one thing in mind: in the world of criminal law there are two matters, one is the preventive nature and one we call the penal. Before a crime happens, preventive action, precautionary measures, is one part of the criminal world, that the crime hasn't happened yet but there's a fear that if it isn't stopped it will happen. The second is penal, that the crime has happened, now he must be punished for it, in one sentence: A committed a crime, he should be punished for it, but between these two sentences lies an entire mountain, a whole mountain standing in between. Today, in criminal proceedings involving punishment, involving crimes, I'm going to give you a short note on the trial process. Section 154 CrPC, the Code of Criminal Procedure, this is where it begins. You witness a crime being committed, or that crime happens to you, which is a cognizable offence, a crime the police can act on without a warrant, so you immediately inform the officer-in-charge of the police station, whom you call the SHO, in writing or verbally. If you do it in writing, you'll sign below it, if verbally, the SHO or an officer he designates will bring the verbal statement into written form, read it back to you, and after reading it, get your thumbprint or signature. After that, your case will be formally registered, after you give this application that this crime happened, it happened in front of these witnesses, and this case gets registered. Once a case is registered, a police station has two blocks, an administration block and an investigation block, these two have no connection with each other, neither can the investigation people enter the administration block, nor can the administration people enter the investigation block, all this is clarified in the Police Order 2002. Now your case gets registered, which you call the FIR, once the FIR is registered, the administration block transfers it to the investigation block, when it's transferred, the FIR and the written complaint, the written complaint means this application you're giving against someone that they committed this crime, that goes to the investigating officer, and he begins investigation. He records witness statements under Section 161 CrPC, he visits the scene, inspects it, and begins the investigation according to the nature of the crime. If it's an injury case, he proceeds accordingly, if it's document-based, he investigates accordingly, whatever it is, the bottom line is that he investigates. Once the investigation is complete, including the reason for arrest, everything, what conclusion does he draw? If he concludes, yes, according to this application that was filed, this crime is established, and according to this application the witnesses support it, according to this application we have gathered additional material, according to this application they have proven their position correct, then he sends it to the SHO saying, in my investigation these are guilty, these accused, a challan should be submitted against them, they should be put on trial, and after trial they should be convicted, this is commonly called the closing case-diary entry (challani zimni), he completes his procedure and sends it to administration. The administration block, the SHO, takes it, and writes the final zimni, that I have reviewed this entire investigation, I found it truthful, I found no deficiency in it, I accept the investigating officer's conclusion that these are guilty, chargeable material against them has come onto the record, then he writes the Section 173 report, after writing his final zimni, the 173 report, the Section 173 CrPC report, which we commonly call the challan, this is police terminology, it's mentioned in police rules as 'challan' but nowhere in the CrPC is this word used, nowhere in the CrPC is the word FIR used either. He prepares the 173 report, look, the entire procedure exists, every solution exists, it's implementation that's lacking, implementation will always improve as you become more educated, as your literacy rate increases, as you know your rights, implementation will improve. Back to the point, he prepares the 173 report, and after preparing it sends it to his superior officer, saying, in my view this challan should be submitted to court. His superior officer could be a DSP, could be an SP, could be an SSP, he'll review the whole thing, and after reviewing the challan, he'll either approve it or contest it. Once approved, the SHO submits this file, this challan, to the prosecution department, because the police cannot appear directly in court, they must appear through the prosecution. The challan goes to the prosecution, the prosecution reviews it thoroughly, and after reviewing it examines its standing. If they agree that everything is correct, that their opinion is also correct, this evidence exists, workable material exists, they send it forward, that challan goes to the court. When this challan reaches the court, the court will see whether they did this correctly or incorrectly. Is there such material that shows against the accused, the first stage the court focuses on: is there material for me to initiate proceedings against them, to summon the accused, whether they're in judicial custody or on pre-arrest bail, to summon them and proceed. This is the first stage: if the court believes no offence is even made out in it, it can act, it can dismiss the case on its own, without summoning the accused, without summoning the complainant, it can give the prosecution one goal, that in my view, satisfy me on this point, these accused are concerned, well, these are practical matters. Once the challan goes to the court, the first stage it examines is whether it's workable or not. If it's workable, the second stage is: do I have jurisdiction or not? If it has jurisdiction, then it will itself review it and register it in its own court. If it cannot proceed itself, its superior forum can proceed, if it's within its jurisdiction, then it sends that challan, that judicial file, to the Sessions Judge. The Sessions Judge then either marks it to one of his additional judges or keeps it himself. After that it's formally registered in the court, and that court's status becomes a trial court, it becomes the trial court for that case. Once the trial court registers this case, it will first summon the accused. Once the accused are summoned, then the documents attached to the challan, as many sets as there are accused, the SHO will attach copies stamped with his police station's seal, so if there's one accused, two accused, three accused, that many sets, given to each accused individually, for what purpose? Section 241 if it's a magisterial trial, Section 265-C if it's a Sessions trial, for what purpose are copies given? They're given for this purpose: this is the material against you, read it, understand it, after that I'm going to question you, I'm going to frame the charge. Now the accused reads all these documents, after reading, after seven days or more than seven days, the court frames a charge: this is the allegation against you, you did this act at this time, at this place, you're found to have committed this crime, you did this at this time, this place, this month, this year, you're found to have committed this crime, the charge is framed. Once the charge is framed, the court will specifically ask him, do you plead guilty? Have you, after reading the evidence we gave you under Section 265-C CrPC or Section 241 CrPC, after reading that material, do you accept this charge? If he says yes, then another process follows, he'll be sentenced. If he says no, then, do you plead guilty? He says no, all this is fabricated, all pre-arranged, I will contest it, I will prove it false. The court will summon prosecution evidence. Prosecution evidence, private witness statements, medical evidence if there was a post-mortem, a medical exam, that thing, I'm speaking of every case in general, and then recovery witnesses and the investigating officer, all this evidence will be recorded, the documents that were given, copies, they'll be tendered, exhibited, then in the trial the prosecution will close its evidence. After closing evidence, under Section 342 CrPC, the court will put all that evidence before you in summary form itself. The court will give you one more chance, saying, this evidence has come against you, this evidence has come against you, what do you say? If the accused still says, I am innocent, I will prove that this very evidence before you is contradictory, is fabricated, is without any opportunity, after the 342 statement, two questions are specifically asked, apart from the rest: 1. Do you want to present evidence? Do you want to present your defence evidence? 2. Do you want to place yourself as a witness under Section 340(2) CrPC? 99 percent of accused neither present defence evidence nor appear as a witness themselves. The reason is that the law is such that the prosecution must stand on its own feet, the prosecution must prove its case, the accused doesn't have to prove his own case. If he has dented the prosecution's case, if he has discredited the prosecution, he doesn't need to come into his own defence or bring any other witnesses. 99 percent of the time no defence evidence comes, the accused doesn't come as a witness, he says, I will rebut and argue against the prosecution's evidence itself. After this the whole matter closes, then, according to law, if the accused did not present a defence, the prosecution opens the case in arguments, and if the accused did present a defence and also appeared as a witness himself, then the accused opens the case, because now the accused has to prove that what he said is correct, then prove that the prosecution was also wrong, both sides will be heard, and after hearing, a detailed judgment will come, either he'll be acquitted, or he'll be convicted, or some will be acquitted and some convicted. I hope this brief note I've given you on the terminology will be beneficial for you.