INTRODUCTION:

One of the fruitful things that is given by Britain to India, during her reign was the laws of the British legal system especially the concept of criminal justice system and its related legislations. Our Indian Penal Code, Evidence Act and Civil Procedure Code are the products of the British legislators, which underwent only minor changes even after the independence till now. Likewise, the Criminal Procedure Code was also introduced by the British, laid a concrete foundation for the present Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, which deals with the procedure to be followed by various courts in any criminal proceedings. In addition to it, the Act also imposes duties on the police officers who are a part of the criminal justice system in India. This project focuses on the chapter 19 - ‘Trial of warrant cases by the Magistrates’, which forms a crucial part of the Act.

The function of the Court in a Criminal Trial is to find whether the person arraigned before it is guilty of the offence with which he is charged. For this purpose, the Court scans the material on record to find whether there is any reliable and trust 'worthy evidence upon the basis of which it is possible to convict the accused and to hold that he is guilty of the offence with which he is charged. If in a case, the prosecution leads two sets of evidence, each one of which contradict and strikes at the other and shows it to be unreliable the conviction cannot be sustained.

WHAT IS A WARRANT CASE?

According to S.2 (x) of CrPC,1973 A warrant case for the purpose of the Act, is a case relating to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term exceeding two years and other petty cases would come under summons cases. Cases tried before a Court of Session are all warrant cases except defamation cases under s.237.

Hence Warrant case is more serious offences which are punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of two years. Trial of warrant cases is conducted either by the Court of Sessions or by the Magistrate

Chapter 19 deals with the procedure of trial of warrant-cases..

PROCEDURES ESTABLISHED FOR TRIAL OF WARRANT CASES UNDER CrPC.

1. Cases instituted on a police report [Secs. 238-243].

2. ⁠Cases instituted otherwise than on a police report [Secs. 244-247].

3. ⁠Conclusion of trial [Secs. 248-250].

The difference in procedure is understandable. In cases instituted on a police report, lot of record made during investigation by the police is made available to the court and to the accused person. Such record cannot obviously be made available (as it simply does not exist) in cases instituted otherwise than on a police report. Therefore, it becomes necessary in such cases to provide special procedures to enable the accused to acquaint himself with the facts of the case on which the prosecution is relying before he is called upon to defend himself.

1. Cases instituted on a police report [Secs. 238-243]:According to the Section 2(r) of CrPC " police report" means a report forwarded by a police officer to Magistrate under sub- section (2) of section 173. There are three different kinds of reports to be made by police officers at three different stages of investigation.
   1. Section 157 requires a preliminary report from the officer in charge of a police station to the Magistrate.
   2. Section 168 requires reports from a subordinate police officer to the officer in charge of the station. These reports are known as forwarding reports.
   3. Section 173 requires a final report of the police officer as soon as investigation is completed to the Magistrate. The report under Sub section (2) of Section 173 is called Completion Report al known as the Charge Sheet.

Magistrate of first class and magistrate of second class May take cognizance of offences under section 190 CrPC in following three circumstances:

1. Upon receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offences
2. Upon a police report of such facts
3. Upon information received from person other than a police officer or Suo moto.

The underlying purpose in prescribing this procedure is to ensure speedy disposal of warrant-cases instituted on police reports without in any way prejudicing the accused.1. This section casts a duty on the Magistrate to satisfy himself that he has complied with the provisions of section 207, viz. furnishing the accused free of cost copies of the documents referred to in that section without delay