SOP Station House Management by Kerala Police

100 9. COURT CRAFT
ceeding seven years.
(2) The Court of a Magistrate
of the First Class may
pass a sentence of imprisonment
for a term not exceeding
three years or fine not exceeding
five thousand rupees, or of
both.
It may be noted that to
know which Court can try
an offence, the first schedule
to the CrPC has to be referred.
The powers to try
an offence and the powers to
award a punishment are different.
An Assistant Sessions
Judge or a Magistrate may
try an offence according to the
powers vested in him under
CrPC but cannot award punishment
proposed for the offence.
For example, for the offences
U/S 409 1PC the punishment
proposed is life imprisonment
or imprisonment
for ten years and this offence
is Triable by the Magistrate of
the First Class but that Magistrate
cannot sentence a person
to imprisonment for more
than three years.
The cases or offences depending
on the punishment
proposed are divided into two
categories
(1) Warrant case and
(2) Summons case.
A warrant case means a
case relating to an offence
punishable with death, imprisonment
for life or imprisonment
for a term exceeding
two years, (Section 2(x) of
CrPC).
The summons case means
a case relating to an offence
and not being a warrant case.
(Section 2(w) of CrPC).
It means all other cases
to which the punishment is
two years and below. The
procedure to be adopted by
different Courts are classified
as sessions trial; (Chapter
XVIII) warrant case trial
by Magistrate (Chapter XIX)
summons case trial by Magistrate
(Chapter XX) and summary
trials (Chapter XXI of
CrPC).
The Courts trying the offences
give numbers to the
cases:
1. ST Cases = Summarily
Triable Cases tried by a Magistrate.
2. CC Cases = Calendar
Cases - Warrant or Summons
Cases tried by a Magistrate
3. CP Cases = (Committal
Proceedings) Cases which
are to be tried by Sessions
Court are committed from
Magistrate,
4. SC Cases = cases which
are tried in Sessions Court
9.4 Maintenance
of Court Calendar
A chart or a register has to
be maintained in each Police
Station. It is advisable to
maintain separate chart for
each Court, month-wise keeping
one sheet for each month
with the following particulars.
Serial No, Name of the Court,
Crime No, Section of Law, SC,
CP, CC or ST Number, Date
of hearing, Date of next hearing
for (evidence, arguments,
defence etc.) and final result.
This will enable the SHO
to know Court proceedings at
a glance for the day. On
the arrival of SHO, he attends
to his routine work at Police
Station and afterwards, he
should go through the chart
and get ready to attend the
Court in case of important
cases or otherwise depute subordinates.
In all important
cases, the SHO will make arrangements
to produce witnesses
and brief them. The
SHO should see that at least
a SCPO is deputed for Court
work if not but never depute
a Civil Police Officer unless in
exigencies.
9.5 Process - (Service
of Summons,
Execution
of Warrants)
(Ref: PHQ Circular
No:34/2015 & 06/2018)
It is the duty of the SHO
to see that all the summons
are served and warrants are
executed, which are either issued
from the Court or obtained
by him. The result of
the cases will depend on the
process work. Unless the SHO
convinces interest and supervises
the work turned out by
the CPO or SCPO whoever is
deputed for serving the process
and guides them, the
cases will suffer. The duty
of the SHO does not cease
by mere serving the process
but he should ensure that the
witnesses attend the Court in
time.
9.6 Service of summons
and execution
of warrants
Summon means an authoritative
call, a call to appear especially
in Court. Every summon
issued by a Court under
the Code of Criminal Procedure
shall be in writing in duplicate
signed by the presiding
officer of such Court or by
such other officer as the High
Court may, from time to time,