Lawwatch : Legal Resources for Advocates

Criminal Conspiracy and related Offences

By K Rajasekharan 25 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

A conspiracy takes place when two or more people make an agreement to commit or cause to be done, an illegal act or a legal act through illegal means and to take some step consequent to the agreement. Conspiracy does not require that the illegal act to be completed. A group of individuals can be convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary even if the actual burglary never happens. In a conspiracy an accused can be charged with both the offences: the conspiracy to commit a crime, and the crime itself.

Perjury or Forgery in Court: How to Proceed on it?

By K Rajasekharan 21 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

The act of giving false oral evidence (perjury) or giving false written statement (forgery) is a criminal offence, punishable under Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). The word perjury is not used in IPC, but forgery is described in Section 463 IPC.

HC can’t direct Police not to Arrest the Accused

By K Rajasekharan 19 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

The High Court (HC) cannot direct the investigation agency not to arrest the accused during the course of investigation or to ask the Trial Magistrate to admit the accused on bail while dismissing the application of the accused for quashing the Fist Information Report (FIR) under Section 482 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC).

Family Court can declare extra judicial Muslim Divorce

By K Rajasekharan 17 January 2022Family, Marriage & Divorce

Kerala High Court (HC) in Asbi K N v Hashim M U has formulated some guidelines for the Family Court to be followed when any party files a petition seeking its endorsement to an extrajudicial divorce duly concluded under Muslim Personal Law. The judgement was delivered on 12 October 2021. The HC declared the nature of enquiry and trial procedures to be made by the Family Court in such cases. The courts can declare such marital status under Section 7 of the Family Court Act, 1984.

Can a Video be treated as a Document?

By K Rajasekharan 16 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC), Indian Evidence Act

The seminal question considered by the Supreme Court (SC) in P. Gopalkrishnan @ Dileep v The State Of Kerala filed against the Kerala High Court (HC) judgement is whether the contents of the memory card/pen drive in the form of video of an incident in question, submitted to the trial court along with the police report, can be treated as document as such or material object.

Opinion or Expert Evidence: Its Relevancy

By K Rajasekharan 16 January 2022Indian Evidence Act

The relevancy of opinion evidence is dealt with in Sections 45 to 51 of the Indian Evidence Act (IEA). Opinion evidence in general is inadmissible. But two kinds of opinion evidence have relevance and hence admissible in judicial proceedings: one is expert opinion and the other is opinion of non-experts in some exceptional cases, as specified in the IEA.

Commission for Local Investigation under CPC

By K Rajasekharan 14 January 2022Civil Cases & Proceedures

In a civil suit, if the court finds that a local investigation is required or proper the court can issue a commission to a person as it thinks fit and ask him to make an investigation and report the matter thereon to the court, under Section75(b) and Order 26 rule 9 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

Medical Examination of an Accused under CrPC

By K Rajasekharan 10 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

When a person is arrested on the charge of an offence, the Police Officer not below the rank of a Sub Inspector or a person under his direction can ask a medical practitioner to make an examination of the person arrested as is reasonably necessary to ascertain the facts which may afford such evidence of commission of the offence.

What the Police Report u/s 173(2) must Contain

By K Rajasekharan 10 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

In every criminal case, on completion of the police investigation, the police have to file a final Police Report, under Section 173(2) of the CrPC. Police investigation starts with what we call First Information Statement (FIS) by some informant, then comes First Information Report (FIR) and ends with submission of final Police Report, stated as above, clearly denoting whether to proceed against the accused or not. The FIS leads to the recording of FIR.

Offence of Uttering Obscene words in Public Place

By K Rajasekharan 8 January 2022Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC)

In order to attract Section 294(b) IPC, it is necessary for the prosecution to prove that the offence had been committed in the public place. Public place is one where the public go, no matter whether they have a right to go or not. The public place may vary from time to time and what the court has to consider is whether the particular place is a public place or not.