Judicial Cognizance under the Indian Criminal Justice System

In a generic sense, meaning of Cognizance is to notice something or when anything comes in recognition of someone, it is said that the person has taken cognizance of that thing or that it has come into his notice or he has given that thing his attention. ‘Cognizance’ in a judicial sense means, when the court takes cognizance or notice of any offence. The power or right to take cognizance is given to the magistrate is provided under the section 190 of the code of criminal procedure. Cognizance of an offence is more than just recognition or noticing a particular case, the process of cognizance is said to be completed when a magistrate or any authorized person applies his/her mind or intellect on the offence and forms an opinion for themselves that whether an offence has been committed or in other sense if the provisions or sections of the Indian penal Code are being attracted or not. Meaning of Cognizance can also be “to be aware of” and a judge in his word connotes it as “taking judicial notice” of any offence or any case/complaint which has a potential to develop further and become an offence. The application of mind comes into picture when the magistrate must decide that whether this case has a capacity to become a full-fledged proceeding. There is no need for any official or formal-direct action by the magistrate, cognizance is said to take place the moment the magistrate applies his mind to find out that whether the offence has been committed by the accused or not.??

Therefore, we can conclude from the above explanation of the meaning of judicial cognizance that it is a process which happens before a valid trial is conducted by the court. This process of judicial cognizance is a sine qua non which means a very essential condition or step which must take place before or precedent to any trial takes place. This process of taking cognizance of a particular case depends on case to case and hence, is subjective and depends on facts of each case, thus, does not have a universal applicability. The magistrate has two routs in which he can proceed when a complaint or case first comes, one is taking the case under the ambit of section 190 or 200 of Cr.P.C. or to order investigation of the case, he has a discretion to order investigation by issuing a warrant for search or in other way under section 156 clause (3) of this code. In the former situation, he has said to be taken cognizance and in the later case, he is said not have taken cognizance because rather than applying his own sense, he has ordered investigation, matter has shifted to the police authority. This has also been said in the case of S.K. Sinha CEO vs Videocon International Ltd. (2008). 1?

Scope of Judicial Cognizance under the Indian Criminal Justice System?

This process is given under the section 190(1) of Cr.P.C. and this section gives the magistrate the power to take cognizance of the matter or any case which comes to him by either:?

???? 1.?? Any complaint of some facts which is brought to his notice.?

1. By the means of receiving any police report which constitutes the facts which can make an offence.??

1. By means of receiving any information by any person other than the police officer or when the information or the case comes into notice of the magistrate himself.??

The above essentials were given in the case of Usha ben vs Kishorbhai Chemical Talpada (2012) The trial court or any other authorised body cannot investigate the evidences so collected by the investigation team, even if there is some discrepancy with the evidence so collected, it is not advised or allowed to the trial court to investigate the evidence collected in the process of investigation2. The ambit of Judicial Cognizance is limited till the applicability and judgement of the judges themselves. According to the scope of section 190 under the code, the cognizance step is only till the magistrate or the judges decide that whether a prima-facie offence is been committed or not. The judges are let to refer to the facts of the case and decide whether an offence is committed (This process or step means taking cognizance).?

When can a Judicial Cognizance be proper or valid??

The Magistrate can take cognizance of the case in many ways, as shown under thesection190(2)??

And these means are by either the information of the police, or by the information of any other person than the police or by his own notice. Under this, it is important for the judge to take cognizance of only those reports or cases which are of a cognizable in nature and not non-cognizable.??

Can the power to take cognizance of any case be taken away from the Magistrate??

Even if the police report is not made with due diligence or even if there is error in the investigation process of the police authority, then also, the magistrate has full power to take cognizance of any case, on his/her own discretion.?

Difference between Judicial cognizance and police investigation?

As the name only suggests, judicial cognizance is the process or step which is done by the judiciary or we can say that it is a judicial process and on the other hand, police enquiry is the process which is done by the police before the process of trial has taken place, as, investigation is generally collection of all the evidences against the accused and after this process has been properly completed, then only the Police report is filed by the police authority. Though the court can also order the police for further investigation on any case if they deem it to be necessary. Generally, the moment police investigation is completed then only judicial cognizance takes place. But even in the later stage the court can send the matter for additional enquiry.?

Cognizance of offence if the prima facie material facts exist, how is cognizance taken in such a case????

The cognizance of the case or the report can be done by the magistrate even if the material facts are against the accused, the magistrate can accordingly issue proceeding and this will be a legal cognizance. This was concluded in the case of Maqsood Mian vs Ruksana Tazeen. The process of cognizance will remain the same.4?

• What are the special powers that a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM).?

There are special powers or rights given to the CJM, in certain cases that he can exercise this power and can transfer the case to some other magistrate. Although this order cannot be illegal, this right has been given to the CJM as he holds some number of administrative powers. And hence, is given some rights under section 190(1) of the Cr.P.C. to transfer cases or dismiss cases though he cannot be biased towards people and should be just and fair.?

• The ambit of Judicial Cognizance under section 198B of Cr.P.C.:?

This section talks about taking cognizance in the matter which falls under the realm of section 376B of the Indian penal code. The magistrate can not take cognizance in such matters if the wife is filing a complaint against her husband though the magistrate has a power to take cognizance when the prima facie evidence shows to make a case against the husband.??

Comparison of Judicial Cognizance in India with different countries like The United state of America.?

Literature Review: In the United States of America.?

Mr. Christopher E Smith in one of his articles on the magistrates of United States has given his opinion on the workings of the Magistrates in the federal courts, there is no process of judicial Cognizance per se, although they have given similar important task to their magistrates like hearing of the evidentiary witnesses and starting of the motions and setting of bails etc. They made the position of Magistrate for a main reason which is to make their justice giving system more efficient. And as we now are aware that this system is quite different from the process which Indian Criminal System follows.?

The Landmark Case Law:?

1. In the case of R.R Chari vs State of U.P., it was held by the supreme court that, taking cognizance of any matter does not mean that there must be any kind of formal action for taking cognizance. It only involves the applicability of mind of the magistrate, analyzing that whether that offence has been committed or not.5?

1. Cognizance can also be done in case of an offence attracting the provisions of cheating from IPC, in, Ashok Kumar Kejriwal vs State of Jharkhand, it was held that the matter which are purely civil in nature, there cognizance is invalid6. This decision was overturned in the case of, Sanghi brothers (Indore) Ltd. vs Gurdev singh gyani and sons, it was held that, cheating was also an offence under IPC, hence, it will be a valid cognizance. 7?

?CONCLUSION?

In conclusion, the process of judicial Cognizance in the Indian justice system is not very complicated or does not involve that many steps, judicial cognizance is basically interpreting the case or report which has come in the notice of the magistrate and after interpreting a proper mental judgement is formed for the case that whether it is fit for further proceedings or not. Even though the process is clear cut but there still can be some level of discrepancy or loophole in this process. A major loophole can be influential people, sometimes cases of these reputed people can be rejected from taking cognizance because of their power. And as the discretion and power fully rests with the magistrate, a regular check is mandatory for cancelling the use of arbitration and misuse of their power.