Discharging an Accused under Criminal Law

Discharging an Accused under Criminal Law

S.227 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 dealt with discharge. Here, Judge can discharge an accused. BNSS, 2023 has repealed Code, 1973 by S.531 (1) of BNSS, 2023.

S.250 (1) of BNSS, 2023 had changed the law ; now accused has to file application within 60 days. S.250 (2) of BNSS, 2023 is quite similar to S.227 of Code, 1973 and gives power to Judge to discharge an accused. 

The leading case on discharge of accused is P. Vijayan v. State of Kerala [2010] GCtR 5810 (SC) where it was held as follows : "Whether the materials at the hands of the prosecution are sufficient or not are matters for trial.  Insofar as the admissibility or acceptability of the extra judicial confession in the form of counter affidavit made by the first accused before the High Court in the earlier proceedings are all matters to be considered at the time of trial. Their probative value, admissibility, reliability etc are matters for evaluation after trial. At the time of framing of the charges the probative value of the material on record cannot be gone into, and the material brought on record by the prosecution has to be accepted as true."

The law was also explained in CBI v. R.R. Kishore [2023] GCtR 1528 (SC) where retrospective application of law was also held to be valid. The case discussed S.6A of DSPE Act, 1946. "Trial under a procedure different from the one when at the time of commission of an offence, or by a court different from the time when the offence was committed is not unconstitutional on account of violation of sub-article (1) to Article 20 of the Constitution." "A person accused of the commission of an offence has no fundamental right to trial by a particular court or by a particular procedure, except insofar as any constitutional objection by way of discrimination or the violation of any other fundamental right may be involved."