Clarifying a recurring procedural error in criminal trials, the Allahabad High Court has held that a trial court is duty-bound to consider a subsequent Final Report (closure report) filed after cognizance, and cannot proceed to frame charges without applying judicial mind to it, setting aside the summoning and charge-framing orders passed by a Special Court in Kannauj under the SC/ST Act.
The appeal arose from a case where police initially filed a charge sheet under IPC provisions and the SC/ST Act, upon which cognizance was taken, but later submitted a supplementary report concluding that the allegations were false. Despite this, the trial court proceeded to frame charges without passing any order on the closure report.
The appellants argued that such an approach violated settled criminal procedure, as further investigation under Section 173(8) CrPC had culminated in a report exonerating them, which the court was legally obliged to examine before moving forward.
Answering the core legal question, the High Court ruled that a supplementary report, whether inculpatory or exculpatory, forms an integral part of the original police report and must be read conjointly with it. The Court rejected the notion that considering a later closure report would amount to an impermissible “review,” holding that “the Magistrate is legally bound to consider the Final Report and pass an appropriate order on it.”
Relying on Apex Court precedents, including Vinay Tyagi, the Court held that ignoring such a report amounts to procedural illegality. Accordingly, it set aside all consequential orders, including the framing of charges, and directed the trial court to first decide the closure report on a cumulative assessment of all police reports before proceeding further.
Case Title: Sonu and Others Vs. State of U.P. and Another
Case No.: Criminal Appeal No. - 10405 Of 2024
Coram: Hon'ble Justice Anil Kumar
Advocate for the Petitioner: Adv. D.K.Tripathi
Advocate for the Respondent: Adv. G.A., Manoj Kumar Srivastava
Read Judgment @Latestlaws.com
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