Trial before various Courts

A man is caught with a stolen phone worth ten thousand rupees, and another is accused of a murder. Both face trial, but nobody would run them the same way. The phone case can be over in a morning; the murder needs a Sessions Judge, a Public Prosecutor, months of evidence and a reasoned judgment. The Sanhita builds four different trial procedures so that the weight of the procedure matches the weight of the offence. The syllabus lists them as CrPC sections 225 to 265; the working law is BNSS sections 248 to 288.

In two minutes

Criminal trials follow one of four procedures: before a Court of Session (BNSS ss.248–260), warrant-cases (ss.261–273), summons-cases (ss.274–282) and summary trials (ss.283–288); the heavier the offence, the more formal the trial.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Criminal Procedure Code 1973, Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and POCSO Act 2012 on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.