- A Sarpanch is considered to be a Public Servant for the purpose of sec 200.
- Under section 201, a procedure is prescribed for cases where the Magistrates is not competent to take the cognizance of the case. Here, Magistrate will direct the complainant to the proper court.
- Any magistrate on a receipt of complaint of an offence shall, where accused resides outside the jurisdiction of that Magistrate, or may postpone the issue of process. (Sec 202)
- The purpose of sec 202 is to check whether or not there are sufficient grounds for proceeding.
- No such direction of investigation or inquiry shall be made under sec 202 of Crpc if the offence complained of is triable exclusively by Court of Sessions or in a case where complainant and witnesses have not been examined except in the case where the complaint is made by a court.
- In Rosie and another vs. State of Kerala, it was held that section 202(2) proviso it is mandatory to examine all the witnesses and if the accused finds that all the witnesses have not been examined then he may as soon as possible raise an objection before the Court of Session and the Court of Session may remand the case back to the Magistrate to examine the witness.
- Investigation under sec 202 is a post cognizance investigation.
- Investigation under sec 202 is under the complete supervision of the magistrate. It’s report is also to be filed under section 202 only.
- The purpose of investigation under sec 202 is to find out whether to issue processes or not.
- For the proceeding of sec 202 it’s required that after conducting the examination of sec 200 the Magistrate has decided to issue the process but he has some uncertainty in his mind and hence to provide extra assurance to himself he conducted the proceeding of either investigation or inquiry after having postponed the issue of process.
- Magistrate under section 202 examine the witnesses on oath. These witnesses are additional witnesses who were not examined in sec 200
- Statement of sec 202 is previous statement and can be used for contradiction or corroboration.
- Statements under section 202 are not substantive piece of evidence.
- Section 203 talks about dismissal of complaint.
- A complaint may be dismissed under sec 203, if, after considering the statements on oath of the complainant and the witnesses and the result of the inquiry or investigation under sec 202 is such that the Magistrate is not if he opinion that there is any sufficient ground for proceeding, he shall dismiss the complaint.
- If first complaint is dismissed upon merits then there will be no Second complaint.
- In Poonam Chand Jain vs Fazru, it was held that if there are new facts which the complainant have proved that he could not have known earlier even with due diligence then second complaint will be allowed.
- In a complaint case processes are issued under sec 204
- In Subramaniam Sethu Raman vs State of Maharashtra, it was held that Issue of process is an interlocutory order and revision will not lie in case of interlocutory order.
- Filing of list of witnesses by the complainant before issuance of summons or warrant to the accused under section 204 is mandatory.