FACULTY OF LAW

A.M.U. Aligarh

CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ASSIGNMENT(IN LIEU

OF 2ND GCT)
TOPIC: - FILING OF COMPLAINTS UNDER crpc (SECTIONs 200-
203)
SUBMITTED TO: - MR. ZAKIUDDIN KHAIROOWALA

(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, FACULTY OF LAW)

SUBMITTED BY: MOHD

YOUSUF ALI
ENROLMENT No. :-GI 6399
ROLL No. : - 17-BALLB-100
SEMESTER: - 8th
1
Page

SYNOPSIS
 ➢ INTRODUCTION
➢ ESSENTIALS OF A VALID COMPLAINT
➢ CORE SECTIONS & RELEVANT JUDGMENTS
• SECTION 200 CRPC (EXAMINATION OF COMPLAINANT)
• SECTION 201 CRPC( PROCEDURE BY MAGISTRATE NOT
COMPETENT TO TAKE COGNIZANCE OF THE CASE)
• SECTION 202 CRPC (POSTPONEMENT OF ISSUE OF PROCESS)
• SECTION 203 CRPC (DISMISSAL OF COMPLAINT)
➢ CONCLUSION
➢ REFERENCES
2

INTRODUCTION
Page
 “Complaint implies any accusation provided verbally or in drafting to a magistrate, with
perception to take action under the Code of criminal procedure, whether familiar or
unfamiliar, has perpetrated an assault, but it does not involve a police statement”.1

To create a charge there must be an accusation made with a view to the receiver exercising
action under the Criminal Procedure Code, imposing the same person with a selective
offence.

A mere presentation of the petition to a magistrate to let him take executive action is not a
complaint within the titles of the definition.2

ESSENTIALS OF A VALID COMPLAINT

The essentials of a valid complaint as per Section 2 (d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure are

• The accusation must be made to a magistrate and not to a judge.

• The statement must be made with a sense to the magistrate’s holding action under the
Criminal Procedure Code.
• A mere declaration to a magistrate by way of erudition without any purpose of asking
to take action is not a complaint.
• The accusation must be that an assault has been perpetrated. It is not important that a
distinct offence be stated; only the assertion of fact must establish an offence.

CORE SECTIONS & RELEVANT JUDGMENTS

a) SECTION 200 CRPC (EXAMINATION OF COMPLAINANT)

Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals with the examination of the
complainant. The magistrate after taking cognizance of an offence has to examine the
complainant and witnesses present. This examination has to be done upon oath. The
3
Page

1
Section 2 (d), The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
2
Mohd.Yousuf v. AfaqJahan and Anr.2006 JT.
 magistrate also has the duty to note down the relevant information found in such
examination. The substance of such examination should be given in writing and that has to be
signed by the complainant and the witnesses. The magistrate need not conduct this
examination when:

1. If the complaint is made by a public servant who is acting or purporting to act in

the discharge of his official duties or a Court;
2. If the Magistrate makes over the case for enquiry or trial to another Magistrate
under Section 192.

If the magistrate in charge has examined the case and makes over the case for enquiry or trial
to another magistrate, then the latter magistrate does not need to examine the cases again.

In the case of Rajesh BhalchandraChalke v. State of Maharashta3, the Hon’ble Court held
that “ section 200 applies the terms “shall review” and not “may review”. Hence, the method
record-keeping review of the complainant on declaration is compulsory and not voluntary.
Dependence is placed on numerous decisions in the provider of the contention that
examination of the complainant on testimony is obligatory before publishing method under
Section 200 of CrPC”.

b) SECTION 201 CRPC( PROCEDURE BY MAGISTRATE NOT

COMPETENT TO TAKE COGNIZANCE OF THE CASE)
If the complaint is filed with the Magistrate who cannot take cognizance of the offence he
shall,
1. if the complaint has been made in writing, the return it. Also ask the
complainant to present the compliant in proper court;
2. if the complaint has not been made in writing, direct the complainant to the
proper Court.

c) SECTION 202 CRPC (POSTPONEMENT OF ISSUE OF PROCESS)

Any magistrate on acceptance of a complaint of an offence of which he is entitled to take

cognizance or which has been addressed over to him under section 192, may, if he thinks
4
Page

3
Rajesh BhalchandraChalke v. State of Maharashta, Cr WP 2523 of 2010.
 appropriate, delay the issuance of process against the accused, and either investigate into the
case himself or order an enquiry to be made by a police officer or by such other person as he
thinks appropriate, for the view of determining whether or not there is satisfactory ground for
operation, provided that no such injunction for examination shall be made, i) where it appears
that the offence complained of is triable exclusively by the Court of sessions; or ii) where the
complaint has not been made by a Court, unless the complainant and the witnesses present(if
any) have been examined on oath. The scope of enquiry under this section is restricted to the
ascertainment of truth or falsehood made out in the complaint.

In the case of S.S. Binu V. State of West Bengal &Anr4. , the Court held that “concerning
the sort of the examination, it is proposed that the enactment of Section 202 has two
objectives;

1) To empower the magistrate to examine precisely the accusations made with a view to
prevent a person being named therein as accused from being asked upon to face an
irrelevant, flighty or meritless complaint.
2) To find out whether there is some material to defend in the charges made in the
complaint or in other words, the learned magistate involved is under a commitment to
arrive at a satisfactory point after due application of mind concerning the association
of the apprehended in the commission of the offence,”

d) SECTION 203 CRPC (DISMISSAL OF COMPLAINT)

If after considering the statements on oath (if any) of the complainant and of the witnesses
and the result of the inquiry or investigation (if any) u/s. 202, the magistrate is opinion that
there is no sufficient ground for proceeding, he shall dismiss the complaint, and in every such
case he shall briefly record his reasons for so doing. Here, it will be appropriate to mention
section 190 of the Code. Section 190 of the Code states as under:

Section 190- Cognizance of offences by Magistrates (1) Subject to the provisions of this
Chapter, any Magistrate of the first class, and any Magistrate of the second class specially
empowered in this behalf under sub-section (2), may take cognizance of any offence (a) upon
receiving a complaint of facts which constitutes such offence; (b) upon a police report of such
5
Page

4
S.S. Binu V. State of West Bengal &Anr, CRR 1600 of 2013.
 facts; (c) upon information received from any person other than a police officer, or upon his
own knowledge, that such offence has been committed. (2) The Chief Judicial Magistrate
may empower any Magistrate of the second class to take cognizance under sub-section (1) of
such offences as are within his competence to inquire into or try As per the language of
section190(1)(a) of the Code quoted above, the cognizance maybe taken upon receiving a
complaint of such facts which constitutes an offence .In other words, we can say that when a
written complaint disclosing an offence is filed before a Magistrate or Court, as the case may
be, under chapter XV of the code, as soon as the Magistrate registers that complaint for
recording the statements of the complainant and the witnesses present, if any, under section
200 of the Code, the Magistrate is deemed to have taken cognizance. The Magistrate can also
dismiss the complaint if the processing fee is not paid properly and this ground of dismissal is
mentioned in Section 204.

In the case of Chimanlal v Datar Singh5, it was said that the dismissal of a complaint is not
proper if the Magistrate has failed to examine material witness under Section 202. The
Magistrate can dismiss the complaint or can refuse the issue of the process when:

1. The Magistrate finds out no offence has been committed after the complaint is
reduced to writing according to Section 200;
2. If the Magistrate distrusts the statements made by the complainant;
3. If the Magistrate feels that there is a need to conduct further investigation, then he
can delay the issue of process.

In Santokh Singh v. Geetanjali Woolen Pvt. Ltd.6 , the Court held that if a
complaint has been rejectyed by a magistrate under Section 203 of CrPC then it
doesn’t mean that a second complaint cannot be entertained on the same facts &
grounds. However, it is to be entertained only in special circumstances.

CONCLUSION

The Courts have supported the Prospect that the magistrate should not reject a
complaint without listening to the witness of the complainant who are present in
the Court. In additional terms, the plaintiff should be given a chance of
6

1998 CriLJ 267, 1997 (1) WLN 396.

Page

5
6
1993 CrLJ 3744 (P& H).
 ascertaining the fact of his accusations by having his bystander testimony
examined by the Court. Nevertheless, the magistrate would be correct in rejecting
a grievance outwardly questioning the eyewitnesses who are slightly indicated by
the complaint, but who are not present in the Court. If a charge is in regard to a
conflict of a public nature, it ought to be rejected, even if it has beencostumed up
as a scandal. If, on the other hand, the accusations included in the complaint reveal
an unlawful offence, the magistrate should not drop the charge, totally because
scientific language has not been used in the complaint.

REFERENCES
7
Page
 ➢ http://kanoon.nearlaw.com/2018/01/10/complaints-magistrates/last visited on 6th June,
2020.
➢ https://www.lawaudience.com/complaint-to-magistrates-sections-200-to-203-the-
code-of-criminal-procedure-1973/last visited on 7th June, 2020.
➢ https://blog.ipleaders.in/commencement-proceedings-magistrateslast visited on 7th
June, 2020.
➢ https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/215226/7/09_chapter%204.pdfretri
eved on 6th June, 2020.
8
Page