The Delhi High Court has clarified when an accused person must be heard in a private criminal complaint under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. In a judgment pronounced and uploaded on September 29, Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja held that the magistrate must first record the required sworn statements of the complainant and witnesses present. Statutory exemptions from that examination remain applicable.
If the magistrate then considers that the complaint should proceed rather than be dismissed at that stage, notice must be issued to the accused. The formal decision to take cognisance of the alleged offence can follow only after the accused has an opportunity to be heard. Bar & Bench reported the ruling on September 30; the published judgment was independently read for this report.
The Court explained that this hearing has a limited purpose: the accused may show that the complaint and statements, even accepted at face value, do not disclose an offence. It does not give the accused a right to interfere with the recording of those statements. The bench rejected the Union government’s argument that magistrates should be free to give notice either before or after the required examination.
The ruling answers procedural questions referred to the division bench; it does not decide anyone’s guilt. It also keeps formal cognisance separate from the later decision about issuing process. Subject to the Chief Justice’s directions, the underlying petitions are to return to the appropriate bench on October 28.