CrPC Sections 350, 351 and 352: Witness Non-Attendance, Appeals and Judicial Bar

Sections 350, 351 and 352 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 formed part of Chapter XXVI, dealing with offences affecting the administration of justice. These provisions addressed three connected matters: summary punishment of a witness who disobeyed a summons, the special right of appeal from specified summary convictions, and the restriction on a Judge or Magistrate trying certain offences committed before that judicial officer.

Applicability note: This article explains the CrPC position applicable before the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 came into force. The CrPC has since been repealed, subject to the statutory saving of pending appeals, applications, trials, inquiries and investigations under the repeal and savings provision of the BNSS.

Meaning and purpose of Sections 350, 351 and 352 CrPC

These provisions protected the orderly conduct of judicial proceedings while also preserving procedural safeguards. Section 350 gave a Criminal Court a limited summary power where a summoned witness, without just excuse, failed to attend or left prematurely. Section 351 provided an appeal against sentences imposed under Sections 344, 345, 349 and 350. Section 352 imposed a rule of judicial restraint by preventing certain Judges and Magistrates from themselves trying specified offences connected with proceedings before them, except where the Code expressly permitted summary action.

Section 350 CrPC: Summary procedure for punishment for non-attendance by a witness

Definition and scope: Section 350 dealt with a witness who had been summoned to appear before a Criminal Court and was legally bound to attend at the specified place and time. The provision applied where, without just excuse, the witness neglected or refused to attend, or departed before the time when it was lawful to leave.

The Court could use the summary procedure only when it was satisfied that doing so was expedient in the interest of justice. Before imposing punishment, the Court was required to give the witness an opportunity to show cause why punishment should not be imposed.

Punishment and procedure

Under the provision as it stood, the Court could sentence the witness to a fine not exceeding Rs. 100. In such a case, the Court was required, as nearly as practicable, to follow the procedure prescribed for summary trials.

  • A valid summons and a legal obligation to appear were essential.
  • The failure to attend, refusal to attend, or premature departure had to be without just excuse.
  • The Court had to consider summary action expedient in the interest of justice.
  • An opportunity to show cause had to precede punishment.
  • The prescribed ceiling was a fine of Rs. 100 under the pre-BNSS CrPC text.

Section 351 CrPC: Appeals from convictions under Sections 344, 345, 349 and 350

Definition and scope: Section 351 created a specific appellate remedy for a person sentenced by a Court other than a High Court under Section 344, 345, 349 or 350 CrPC. The appeal lay to the Court to which decrees or orders made by that Court were ordinarily appealable.

Chapter XXIX of the CrPC, dealing with appeals, applied so far as applicable. The appellate Court could alter or reverse the finding, or reduce or reverse the sentence appealed against.

Special appellate destinations

An appeal from such a conviction by a Court of Small Causes lay to the Court of Session for the sessions division in which that Court was situated. Where the conviction was by a Registrar or Sub-Registrar deemed to be a Civil Court by virtue of a direction under Section 347, the appeal likewise lay to the Court of Session for the sessions division in which the relevant office was situated.

Section 352 CrPC: Certain Judges and Magistrates not to try offences committed before themselves

Definition and scope: Section 352 embodied a limitation intended to separate the judicial officer affected by conduct in Court from the trial of certain resulting offences. Except as provided in Sections 344, 345, 349 and 350, a Judge of a Criminal Court other than a High Court Judge, or a Magistrate, could not try a person for an offence referred to in Section 195 when the offence was committed before that Judge or Magistrate, was in contempt of that officer's authority, or came to that officer's notice in the course of a judicial proceeding.

The section therefore operated alongside the special procedures expressly authorised elsewhere in Chapter XXVI. Its purpose was not to prevent the Court from taking steps permitted by those provisions, but to prevent the judicial officer from conducting a trial in the circumstances covered by Section 352 where no statutory exception applied.

How the three provisions worked together

Section 350 supplied a narrowly defined summary power, Section 351 supplied appellate supervision over that power and other specified summary powers, and Section 352 supplied a broader safeguard against a Judge or Magistrate personally trying certain offences arising before that officer. Read together, they balanced the Court's authority to maintain the administration of justice with notice, hearing, appeal and impartial adjudication safeguards.

Current legal status after commencement of BNSS

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 repealed the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Its repeal and savings provision preserves the CrPC for an appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation that was pending immediately before commencement of the BNSS, so that such pending matter continues under the former Code as if the BNSS had not come into force. This page is therefore retained as a reference to the pre-BNSS CrPC provisions and for matters saved by law.

This article is an explanatory legal reference. For a live proceeding, the applicable procedural law can depend on the date and procedural stage of the matter.