Finality of acquittal under Section 256 CrPC bars a fresh identical complaint absent exceptional circumstances.
A summons-case complaint dismissed under Section 256 CrPC after the accused has appeared operates as an acquittal, and that order cannot ordinarily be reviewed or recalled by the Magistrate without statutory power. Once such an acquittal attains finality, the proper remedies are appeal, revision, or inherent jurisdiction, not a fresh verbatim complaint on the same allegations. A second complaint may be considered only in exceptional situations such as manifest error, manifest injustice, or newly discovered facts, and those exceptions were not present here. The fresh complaint and resulting summoning proceedings were therefore treated as an abuse of process and liable to be quashed.
Issues: Whether a second complaint on the same allegations is maintainable after the first summons-case complaint was dismissed for non-appearance of the complainant and his counsel under Section 256 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the resulting acquittal of the accused had attained finality.
Analysis: In a summons case, once the accused has appeared and the complainant does not appear, the Magistrate may adjourn the matter or dismiss the complaint, and if the complaint is dismissed in the exercise of that discretion, the order operates as an acquittal under Section 256 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Such an order cannot be reviewed or recalled by the Magistrate in the absence of statutory power. The remedy against that order lies in appeal, revision, or by invoking inherent jurisdiction, and not by filing a fresh verbatim complaint as a matter of course. The earlier complaint in this case was dismissed after the accused had appeared, no challenge was made to that order, and it attained finality. The second complaint was substantially identical to the first and did not rest on any exceptional circumstance such as manifest error, manifest miscarriage of justice, or newly discovered facts that could not with reasonable diligence have been brought forward earlier. The authorities permitting a second complaint in exceptional situations were confined to dismissals at the pre-summoning or merit-assessment stage and did not govern a dismissal under Section 256.
Conclusion: The second complaint was not maintainable and the summoning order and subsequent proceedings were an abuse of process; the petitioners succeeded.
Final Conclusion: The earlier acquittal having become final, the fresh complaint on the same facts could not be entertained, and the proceedings founded on it were liable to be quashed.
Ratio Decidendi: A summons-case complaint dismissed under Section 256 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 after the accused has appeared and the complainant has failed to attend, resulting in an acquittal that has attained finality, cannot ordinarily be reopened through a second identical complaint absent exceptional circumstances of manifest error, manifest injustice, or newly discovered facts.
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AI Drafter ✕
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