SC to courts: Show courage, drop cases before trial if proof not strong | India News

New Delhi: Criminal proceedings bring stress and social stigma, the SC said on Thursday, urging courts, especially trial courts, to show “clarity and courage” in acquitting the accused when the material on record fails to make a prima facie case.A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and NK Singh said that the judicial process itself should not become a punishment and that the courts should be alive to the human consequences of their decisions and the places of faith society in them. The court passed the order while discharging a person under the SC/ST Act after the elements of the offense under the Special Act were not met but it allowed the trial court to proceed with the offense under the IPC.The apex court said the charge will be framed only if the court forms a view that there is a basis for presuming that the accused has committed an offence, and said the High Court should also apply its mind to the plea of ​​discharge and not reject it mechanically.“…at the stage of framing of charge or at the stage of considering discharge, the court is not dealing with an abstract legal exercise. It is dealing with real people, real concerns and the real weight of the criminal case. Judicial responsibility at this stage calls for care, balance and an honest engagement with the facts on record. The power to frame charges is not merely to apply the material or to dispose of it before trial. The court, taken at face value, does not reveal the elements of an offence, but to tell it to the court of law and to such case. Expect clarity and courage to set aside,” Justice Karol, who wrote the judgment for the bench, said. The bench said discharge is not a technicality “but an essential safeguard”.“Courts must distinguish between a genuine case which warrants a trial and one which rests only on suspicion or conjecture or without any basis for that matter. To allow a matter to proceed despite the absence of a prima facie case is to expose a person to stress, stigma and uncertainty without criminal proceedings. Faithfulness to the rule of law requires courts to remember that the process itself can become a punishment if this duty is not carefully exercised,” it said.The bench said that the trial court has the highest responsibility. “For a litigant or an accused, the trial court is not just a level in a hierarchy. It represents the face of the judiciary itself. The sensitivity, fairness and legal discipline displayed at this level shape how ordinary citizens understand justice. The impression a trial court creates, through its approach to facts and law, often carries that impression on the entire judiciary and especially on the public at every level. At the threshold, the trial court must be aware of the human consequences of their decisions and the impact society has on them. He that believeth shall live for him,” it says.