Section 319 CrPC cannot be used at committal stage; additional accused may be added only after evidence in inquiry or trial.

Section 319 CrPC can be invoked only when evidence emerges in the course of an inquiry or trial, and not at the committal stage under Section 209. Proceedings under Section 209 are confined to ministerial steps for sending the case to the Court of Session and do not amount to an inquiry or involve recording evidence; therefore, the Magistrate has no power at that stage to summon or add a person as an accused. A revisional court cannot confer such power where the statute does not provide it. The Court therefore treated the revisional direction as without jurisdiction and held that any resort to Section 319 must await evidence before the Court of Session.

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Issues: Whether, at the stage of committal under Section 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, a Magistrate can summon or add a person as an accused under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or any other provision, and whether a revisional order directing such addition is valid.

Analysis: Section 319 operates only when, in the course of an inquiry or trial, evidence emerges against a person not already arraigned as an accused. Proceedings under Section 209 are only for committal of a case triable exclusively by the Court of Session and are confined to preliminary and ministerial functions such as furnishing copies, preparing the record, and notifying the Public Prosecutor. They are not an inquiry in the sense required to attract Section 319, and no evidence is recorded at that stage. The statutory scheme and legislative policy underlying Section 209 show that committal proceedings were abolished as an inquiry and that the Magistrate has no power to decide merits or add parties. The revisional court could not confer a power on the Magistrate which the statute withholds.

Conclusion: The Magistrate had no power under Section 209 to summon the appellant as an additional accused, and Section 319 was inapplicable at that stage. The revisional direction was without jurisdiction and illegal.

Final Conclusion: The impugned orders were set aside, and the appeal was allowed, leaving it open to the Court of Session to act under Section 319 only after evidence is recorded in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Power under Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 can be exercised only on evidence recorded in an inquiry or trial, and not at the committal stage under Section 209, which is not an inquiry but a limited ministerial process.

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