Category: Additional Accused

Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Section 319 — Summoning additional accused — Trial Court rejected application to summon additional accused — High Court set aside order and directed summoning — Supreme Court found Trial Court applied stricter standard than necessary — Trial Court erred in isolating inconsistencies and not considering cumulative weight of evidence — Supreme Court held testimony of complainant and two other witnesses, despite inconsistencies, met strong and cogent evidence standard for summoning under Section 319 — Judgments of lower courts set aside and persons directed to be produced as additional accused.

  2026 INSC 251 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISON BENCH MOHAMMAD KALEEM Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih, JJ. )…

Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) — Section 319 — Summoning of Additional Accused — Nature and Scope of Power — The power under Section 319 CrPC is extraordinary and discretionary, intended to be exercised sparingly, but it is an enabling provision aimed at ensuring that no guilty person escapes the process of law — The prerequisite for its exercise is that it must appear from the evidence adduced during inquiry or trial that a person not already arraigned as an accused has committed an offence — The object is to ensure a fair and complete trial and give effect to the maxim ‘judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur’ (Judge is condemned when guilty is acquitted). (Paras 6, 7)

2025 INSC 1386 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA DIVISION BENCH NEERAJ KUMAR @ NEERAJ YADAV Vs. STATE OF U.P. AND OTHERS ( Before : Sanjay Karol and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh, JJ.…

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