Summary
A Magistrate relying on the informant’s and witnesses’ new affidavits accompanying a protest petition could not take police-report cognizance and continue the matter as a State case without the complaint procedure. The Court set aside the summoning and High Court orders, leaving the Magistrate free to treat the protest petition as a complaint under Chapter XV. Not every protest petition automatically becomes a complaint, and no opinion on the allegations’ merits was expressed.
Issues
- Whether police-report cognizance could rest on additional affidavit evidence supplied with a protest petition.
- Whether the protest petition had to be processed under the complaint procedure on this record.
- What options remained after the defective summoning order was set aside.
Provisions considered
- Sections 173(2), 190(1)(a), 190(1)(b), 200 and 202; Chapter XV, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973The Magistrate could disagree with closure on investigation material, but actual reliance on new supporting affidavits here required the complaint route and its procedural safeguards. (¶¶ 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- Section 2(d), Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973Whether a protest petition can be treated as a complaint depends on its allegations and legal requirements, rather than its label alone. (¶¶ 9, 10, 12)
Held
- The Magistrate had actually considered not only objections to the closure report but the informant’s supporting affidavit and four witness affidavits. Those new materials underlay his view that investigation was unfair and a prima facie case existed; the assertion that he relied solely on the case diary was incorrect. (¶ 7)
- A protest petition drawing attention to existing investigation material does not automatically convert the proceeding into a complaint case. But where the Magistrate relied on the additional affidavit evidence as here, he should have proceeded under Chapter XV rather than Section 190(1)(b) as a State case. (¶¶ 5, 8, 9, 11)
- A Magistrate may reject a protest petition and supporting material, without extinguishing the informant’s right to institute a fresh Section 200 complaint. If a protest petition is treated as a complaint, the statutory complaint procedure, including applicable examination and inquiry requirements, must be followed. (¶¶ 9, 10)
- The appeal was allowed and both the High Court and CJM orders set aside. The Magistrate remained free to treat the protest petition as a complaint and proceed under Chapter XV; no merits findings were made and the fresh decision must remain uninfluenced by the observations. (¶¶ 11, 12)
Result
Appeal allowed; High Court and CJM orders set aside. Magistrate free to process the protest petition as a Chapter XV complaint; merits expressly left open.