[Section 319 CrPC] Power of trial court to proceed against non-accused should be used sparingly: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently observed that the power of trial court under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to proceed against persons who have not been chargesheeted as accused, is a discretionary and extraordinary power which should be exercised sparingly and only in those cases where the circumstances of the case warrant [Sagar v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Another]..A Division Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay S Oka observed that the scope and ambit of Section 319 of the Code has been well settled by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in the case of Hardeep Singh v. State of Punjab and others."The Constitution Bench has given a caution that power under Section 319 of the Code is a discretionary and extraordinary power which should be exercised sparingly and only in those cases where the circumstances of the case so warrant and the crucial test as noticed above has to be applied is one which is more than prima facie case as exercised at the time of framing of charge, but short of satisfaction to an extent that the evidence, if goes unrebutted, would lead to conviction," the Court said..Section 319 CrPC lays down power of trial court to proceed against persons not being the accused, whom the Court thinks, from the evidence gathered during the course of inquiry or trial, to have committed the offence.The trial court in the present case had rejected an application filed by the complainant under Section 319 CrPC for summoning the appellant Sagar as accused to face trial in a murder case.While rejecting the application, the trial court had observed that neither was the complainant an eye-witness to the acts alleged to have been committed by the appellant nor was the involvement of the appellant mentioned in the chargesheet.The Allahabad High Court had overturned the trial court ruling leading to the present appeal before the Supreme Court. .The Supreme Court relied on its decision in Harshdeep to hold that the power under Section 319 CrPC is discretionary and an extraordinary and should be exercised sparingly and only in cases where circumstances of the case warrant.With regard to the order of the High Court, the Bench was of the view that the High Court had failed to consider the basic principles laid down by the Supreme Court while invoking Section 319 of CrPC, which were considered by the trial judge.Therefore, the top court allowed the appeal and aside the order of the High Court..Advocate-on-Record Anoop Prakash Awasthi and Advocate Parthvi Ahuja appeared for the petitioner.Advocates-on-Record Vishwa Pal Singh, Sanchit Garga, advocates Ashish Pandey, Sandeep Singh, Shashi Kumar and Nikunj Jain appeared for the respondents..[Read Order]