Commission of Inquiry is not a court for false-evidence prosecution under CrPC, limiting complaint-based criminal proceedings.

A Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 is not a "court" for section 195(1)(b) CrPC because it is a fact-finding body without adjudicatory power and the statutory fictions in sections 5(4) and 5(5) are confined to their express purposes. The Act's limited deeming provisions do not extend the Commission's status beyond the specific offences and procedural consequences stated in the statute, and do not authorise prosecution for false evidence on the Commission's direction. Accordingly, a complaint based on such direction cannot validly sustain a prosecution under section 193 IPC.

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Issues: Whether a Commission of Inquiry constituted under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 is a "court" for the purposes of section 195(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, so as to enable the Commission to initiate prosecution for alleged false evidence given before it.

Analysis: Section 195(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 limits the expression "court" in clause (b) to a civil, revenue or criminal court, and to a tribunal only if the parent statute declares it to be a court for the purposes of that section. The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 confers powers of a civil court for limited procedural purposes under section 4, and by section 5(4) deems the Commission to be a civil court only for the specified purpose of dealing with offences committed in its presence under the corresponding provisions of criminal procedure law. Section 5(5) further deems proceedings before the Commission to be judicial proceedings for the limited purpose of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. A Commission of Inquiry is nevertheless a fact-finding body without adjudicatory power and without authority to pronounce a definitive judgment on rights or liabilities. The legal fiction created by the Act cannot be expanded beyond its express limits, and the later statutory history did not convert such a Commission into a court for section 195(1)(b).

Conclusion: A Commission of Inquiry under section 3(1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 is not a court for the purposes of section 195(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; the complaint lodged on the Commission's direction could not validly found the prosecution under section 193 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory body is a "court" for section 195(1)(b) only if it has the essential attributes of a court, including power to render a definitive adjudication, or if the statute expressly brings it within that definition; a limited legal fiction deeming it a civil court for specific purposes does not suffice to make it a court for all purposes under section 195.

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