Does session court have the power to add accused in the ongoing trial?
Under section 319 of Cr.P.C., the court is empowered to add any accused who was not the party to the ongoing case. The Supreme Court in the year 2014 in a landmark judgment of Hardeep Singh vs. State of Punjab & Others decided that the order to summon a person who was not originally shown accused will not be illegal, unlawful or otherwise objectionable. The object of the section is that the case against all the accused shall be tried and disposed of simultaneously and not expeditiously. However, this is just ancillary and incidental to the main power of the court to take cognizance u/s 193. The power vested u/s 319 should be used very sparingly. The underlying principle is that whenever the court finds itself in circumstances where it is evident that a person who is an accused is not charged in the case, he shall not be left powerless to act to deliver justice. Author Detail : Harsh Yadav, ...