Compiled by Dr.

Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

Differences and Short Notes

Summons Case and Warrant Case

As per Section 2(w), "summons-case" means a case relating to an offence, and not
being a warrant-case and as per Section 2 (x), "warrant-case" means a case
relating to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or
imprisonment for a term exceeding two years. Cr P C classifies an offence as either
cognizable or non-cognizable, and a trial procedure as summons case or warrant
case. Thus, the terms summons case and warrant case is in reference to the
procedure adopted for the trial of the case. Thus, the difference between the two
can be seen from the point of view of their trial procedures as highlighted below -

Summons Case Warrant case

Cr PC prescribes two procedures for
the trial of a warrant case my
Cr P C prescribes only one procedure for all
magistrate - one for case instituted
summons cases, whether instituted upon a
upon a police report and one for
police report or otherwise.
case instituted otherwise than on a
police report.
No charge needs to be framed only the
A charge needs to be framed against
particulars of the offence need to be
the accused.
conveyed to the accused.
As per S. 252, if the accused pleads guilty, As per S. 241, After the charge is
the magistrate must record the plea of the framed, the accused may plead
accused and may, in his discretion, convict guilty and the magistrate may
him on such plea. convict him on his discretion.
Accused my plead guilty by post without
Accused must appear personally.
appearing before the magistrate.
Magistrate can discharge the
The accused may be acquitted, if the accused if complainant is absent, or
complainant is absent or if the complainant no charge is framed, or if the
dies. offence is compoundable and non
cognizable.
The complainant may, with the
The complainant may, with the permission of
permission of the court, withdraw
the court, withdraw the complaint against the
the remaining charges against an
accused.
accused, if he is charged with
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

several offences and convicted on

one or more of them.
When a warrant case is tried as a summons When a summons case is tried as a
case and if the accused is acquitted under S. warrant case and if the accused is
255, the acquittal will only amount to discharged under S 245, the
discharge. discharge will amount to acquittal.
Trial of a warrant case as a summons case it Trial of a summons case as a
is a serious irregularity and the trial is warrant case is an irregularity which
vitiated if the accused has been prejudiced. is curable under Section 465.
A summons case cannot have charges that A warrant case may contain charges
require a warrant case. that reflect a summons case.
Accused may get more than one
Accused gets only one opportunity. opportunity to cross-examine the
prosecution witness.
A charge under a warrant case
cannot be split up into its
constituents for trial under summons
case.
After convicting the accused, the
No such power to the magistrate in summons magistrate may take evidence
case. regarding previous conviction not
admitted by the accused.
All cases which are punishable by
All cases which are not punishable by death,
death, imprisonment for life, or for
imprisonment for life, or for more than two
more than two years are warrant
years are summons cases.
cases.
Conversion
As per Section 259, a summons case can be
converted into a warrant case if the case
A warrant case cannot be converted
relates to an offence that entails more than 6
into a summons case.
months of imprisonment as punishment and
the judge feels that in the interest of justice it
the case should be tried as a warrant case.

It is important to note that the question whether a summons or a warrant should be

 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

issued in the case is not related to whether the case is a summons case or a warrant
case.

Compoundable and Non Compoundable Offences - Some offences largely

affect only the victim and no considerable harm is considered to be done to the
society. In such offences, if the offender and victim compromise, there is no need
to waste court's time in conducting a trial. The process of reaching a compromise is
called Compounding. Conceptually, such offences, in which a compromise can be
done and a trial can be avoided, are called Compoundable offence. Rests of the
offences are non-compoundable. Technically, offences classified as Compoundable
by Section 320 of Cr P C are compoundable. Section 320 specifies two kinds of
Compoundable offences - one where permission of court is required before
compounding can be done for example, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Theft,
criminal breach of trust, assault on a woman with intention to outrage her modesty,
etc. and one where permission of the court is not required for example, causing
hurt, adultery, defamation, etc. As per S. 320(3), if the abetment of an offence is an
offence and if the offence is compoundable then abetment is also compoundable.

Only the person, who is specified in the classification tables in Section 320, has the
right to compound the offence. The person is usually the victim. The offender
cannot demand compounding as a right.

However, when an offender has been committed to trial or when he has been
convicted and his appeal is pending, compounding can only be done with the leave
of the court to which he is committed or to which the trial is pending. If an
offender is liable for enhanced punishment or a different punishment on account of
a previous conviction, compounding cannot be done. High Court and Court of
Session may, under their power of revision in Section 401, can allow any person to
compound any compoundable offence.

When an offence is compounded, it is equivalent to an acquittal.

Compoundable Offence Section 320 Non Compoundable Offence

Offences classified as compoundable by S. 320
Rest of the offences
of CrPC
Private party as well as society
Offence mostly affects a private party.
both is considerably affected by
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

the offence.
The victim and the offender may reach No compromise is allowed. Even
compromise with or without the permission of court does not have the power to
the court depending on the offence. compound the offence.
Full trial is held and acquittal or
Upon compromise, the offender is acquitted
conviction is given as per the
without any trial.
evidence.

In Bhima Singh vs State of UP, AIR 1974, SC held that when an offence is
compoundable with the permission of the court, such permission may be granted
by SC while an appeal is made against the conviction provided the parties have
settled the matter amicably.

In Ram Lal vs State of J&K, 1999, SC held that when an offence is declared non-
compoundable by law, it cannot be compounded even with the permission of the
court. However, the court may take the compromise into account while delivering
judgment.

The case of B S Joshi vs State of Haryana, AIR 2003 is interesting in this regard.
The case was about the matter related to Section 498A, which is non-
compoundable offence. In this case, the parties reached a compromise but the High
Court refused to quash the FIR, on the ground that the offence is non-
compoundable. However, SC held that in the backdrop of the interpretation of the
various relevant provisions of the Code under Chapter XIV and of the principles of
law enunciated by this Court in a series of decisions relating to the exercise of the
extraordinary power under Article 226 or the inherent powers under Section 482 of
the Code, such power could be exercised either to prevent abuse of the process of
any court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice, though it may not be possible
to lay down any precise, clearly defined and sufficiently channelised and inflexible
guidelines or rigid formulate and to give an exhaustive list of myriad kinds of cases
wherein such power should be exercised. It further observed that in this case, the
parties were not asking for compounding the offence but for quashing the FIR. It
observed that since because of the amicable settlement, there is no chance of
conviction and in such a case the court has the power to quash the proceeding.
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

Information and Complaint

Information Complaint
As per Section 2(d), a complaint means
any allegation made orally or in writing to
a magistrate, with a view to his taking
No legal definition. It is used in its
action under this code (CrPC), that some
regular English meaning.
person, whether known or unknown, has
committed an offence, but does not
include a police report.
The purpose of complaint is that the
No action from the magistrate is
magistrate takes action on it and provides
expected.
relief.
Magistrate takes cognizance of the
No cognizance is taken.
offence as per Section 190.
It may include information about
commission of offences, apprehension
about breach of peace, and presence of
It is always about commission of an
absconder and suspected persons to
offence.
police officers or magistrate. Thus,
information may not necessarily about
an offence.

Sufficient grounds for commitment and Sufficient grounds for conviction

Sufficient grounds for
Sufficient grounds for commitment
conviction
When a magistrate takes cognizance of an
offence under Section 190 (upon receipt of a
Upon holding the trial, if the
complaint or otherwise), he examines the
court is satisfied with the
complaint in accordance with Section 200 by
evidence provided by the
examining the facts and the witnesses. If he
prosecutor that the accused is
finds that the complaint is with merits, the case
guilty of the alleged offence, he
is deemed committed for trial and the magistrate
convicts the offender.
issues the process under Section 204. If the
offence is exclusively triable by Court of
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

Session, the magistrate commits the case to

Court of Session under Section 209.
The evidence must prove the
At this stage it is not considered whether the
guilt of the accused without any
grounds are sufficient for conviction.
doubt.

Discharge and Acquittal

Discharge Acquittal
Session Trial
If after evaluating the evidence
Session Trial given by the prosecute, the judge
As per Section 227, if, upon consideration of considers that there is no evidence
the record of the case and the documents that the accused has committed the
submitted therewith, and after hearing the offence, the judge acquits the
submissions of the accused and the offender under Section 232.
prosecution in this behalf, the Judge However, if the offender is not
considers that there is not sufficient ground acquitted under Section 232, he is
for proceeding against the accused, he shall permitted to give his defense and
discharge the accused and record his reasons evidence. After hearing the
for so doing. arguments of both the parties, the
court may acquit of convict the
person under Section 235.
Warrant Trial By Magistrate
As per Section 239, if, upon considering the
police report and the documents sent with it Warrant Trial By Magistrate
under section 173 and making such As per Section 248, if, in any case
examination, if any, of the accused as the under this Chapter in which a
Magistrate thinks necessary and after giving charge has been framed, the
the prosecution and the accused an Magistrate finds the accused not
opportunity of being heard, the Magistrate guilty, he shall record an order of
considers the charge against the accused to acquittal.
be groundless, he shall discharge the
accused, and record his reasons for so doing.
Discharge does not mean that the accused has Acquittal means that the accused
not committed the offence. It just means that has been held innocent.
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

there is not enough evidence to proceed with

the trial.
The accused cannot be tried again
If further evidence is gathered later on, the
for the same offence once he has
accused may be tried again.
been acquitted.

Cognizable offence and Non-cognizable offence

Cognizable offence Non Cognizable offence
Defined in Section 2(l) - "non-
Defined in Section 2(c) - "cognizable cognizable offence" means an
offence" means an offence for which, and offence for which, and "non-
"cognizable case" means a case in which, a cognizable case" means a case in
police officer may, in accordance with the which, a police officer has no
First Schedule or under any other law for the authority to arrest without warrant.
time being in force, arrest without warrant. Example - keeping a lottery
Examples - Murder, Dowry death, grevious office,voluntarily causing hurt,
hurt, theft. dishonest misappropriation of
property.
As per Section 155, Police has to
Police has to record information about a
enter information in register
cognizable offence in writing as per Section
prescribed for it and refer the
154.
informant to a magistrate.
Police officer cannot investigate the
Police can start investigation without the
case without the order of a
order of a magistrate.
magistrate.
In general, cognizable offences are of
serious nature which involve imprisonment
of more than three years. However, there is
no such precise rule. To be cognizable, an
offence must be declared so by the law
defining that offence. Several offences
which carry less prison term such as rioting
(2 yrs) have been declared cognizable, while
several with bigger prison term such as False
Evidence (7 yrs) or Rape by a man with his
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

own wife of not less than 12 yrs have been

declared non-cognizable.

First Information Report

The name FIR is given to the information given by any person about a cognizable
offence and recorded by the police in accordance with Section 154. As per this
section, every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence, if
given orally to an officer in charge of a police station, shall be reduced to writing
by him or under his direction, and be read over to the informant; and every such
information, whether given in writing or reduced to writing as aforesaid, shall be
signed by the person giving it, and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book
to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe in
this behalf.

SC in the case of State of Bombay vs Rusy Mistry, AIR 1960, defined FIR as so
- A FIR means the information, by whomsoever given, to the officer in charge of a
police station in relation to the commission of a cognizable offence and which is
first in point of time and on the strength of which the investigation into that offence
is commenced.

Thus, FIR is nothing but information of the nature of a complaint or accusation

about a cognizable offence given by any person to the police so that the police can
start investigation. When a person reports any information about a cognizable
offence to the police, the police is bound to register a case and proceed with
investigation. However, for police to investigate the matter, the offence must be a
cognizable offence. The police is not allowed to investigate a non-cognizable
offence without an order from a magistrate. So, once the duty officer is certain that
the offence alleged to have been committed is a cognizable offence, he directs the
complainant to put his statement in writing. In the presence of the complainant, the
duty officer shall complete all the columns in the FIR register with the information
given by the complainant. He shall then read out all the contents of the FIR
registered to the complainant. Once the complainant is certain that all the details
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

have been correctly written, he should sign the FIR.

FIR merely contains the facts of the offence as known by the informant. The FIR is
a statement by the complainant of an alleged offence. The informant is not required
to prove his allegations in any manner at the police station. It is the job of the
police to ascertain facts, verify details and substantiate the charges or otherwise.

However, the facts must not be vague. The facts must divulge at least some
concrete information about the offence committed. In case of Tapinder Singh vs
State, 1972, SC held that when a telephone message did not disclose the names of
the accused nor did it disclose the commission of a cognizable offence, it cannot be
called a FIR.

In case of State of UP vs R K Shrivastava, 1989, SC held that if the allegations

made in an FIR do not constitute a cognizable offence, the criminal proceeding
instituted on the basis of the FIR should be quashed.

Sometimes multiple persons may report the same incident and in such situation the
police must use commonsense and record one statement as FIR. Usually, the
statement that contains enough information to allow the police to proceed with
investigation is recorded as FIR.

Evidentiary Value of FIR

A FIR is not substantive evidence that is, it is not evidence of the facts which it
mentions. However, it is very important since it conveys the earliest information
about the occurrence of an offence and it can be used to corroborate the
information under Section 157 of Indian Evidence Act or to contradict him under
Section 145 of Indian Evidence Act, if the informant is called as a witness in a
trial. It is considered that FIR has a better corroborative value if it is recorded
before there is time and opportunity to embellish or before the memory of the
information becomes hazy. There must be a reasonable cause for the delay. For
example, in case of Harpal Singh vs State of HP, 1981, involving rape, the FIR
was registered after 10 days. It was held that the delay was reasonable because it
involved considerable matter of honor for the family and that required time for the
family to decide whether to take the matter to court or not. As FIR can also be used
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

in cross examination of the informant.

However, if the FIR is made by the accused himself, it cannot be used against him
because of Section 25 of Evidence act which forbids any confession made to the
police to be used against the accused.

A FIR can also be used as a dying declaration under Section 32 of Indian Evidence
Act.

Summary Trial
1. A kind of fast track proceeding where a case is resolved in one sitting.
2. Meant for petty offenses, to reduce the burden of court

S. 260 - When a case involving the following offenses comes to CJM, MM, and
JMFC for hearing, they have the discretionary power to decide whether they want
to try the case summarily or not. There are 9 such offences -
any offence that does not have death, life imprisonment or imprisonment of more
than 2 yrs as punishment, theft, lurking house trespass, receiving stolen property,
assisting in concealment of stolen property, abetment of the offences covered
under this section, attempt of these offences.
If at any point in while trying the matter in this manner, if the court thinks that it is
undesirable to try the case summarily, it shall recall any witnesses who may have
been examined and proceed to re-hear the case in the manner provided in this code
(i.e. as a summons trial or warrant trial)

S. 261 - High Court may give power to Judicial Magistrate Second class to try
offences involving imprisonment of less than 6 months summarily.

S. 262 - Sentence of imprisonment of more than 3 months cannot be passed in a

summary trial and the procedure adopted in a summary trial will be same as the
procedure adopted in a Summons case except the following changes

S. 263 - The judge must record the following particulars in the prescribed format -
 Compiled by Dr. Kalpna Sharma, Assistant Professor, LC II, University of Delhi

serial number of the case, date of offence, date of complaint, name of complainant,
name, age, address, parentage of accused, offence complained and offence proved,
plea of the accused and his examination, findings, sentence, and date of
termination of the proceeding.

S. 264 - If the accused does not plead guilty, the judge must record the substance
of the evidence and give reasons for the judgment.

S. 265 - Every such record and judgment shall be in the language of the court.