Report No. 233

Amendment of Code of Criminal Procedure Enabling Restoration of Complaints

I. Introduction

1.1 It is a well settled law that a criminal court has no power like the one which a civil court possesses under Order IX of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 (CPC) to restore a complaint dismissed in default, as the accused stands discharged or acquitted depending on the case being a warrant-case or a summons-case.

In order to get the complaint restored, a complainant, poor or rich, has to knock the door of the High Court under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CrPC). If a Magistrate has the power to entertain a complaint and decide it on merits after summoning the accused, he should also have power to restore it on good or sufficient cause being shown and re-summon the accused to face the trial on merits.