The appellant was accused of commission of offence under Section 27(a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. After the investigation, a final report was filed against all the accused including the the appellant herein (accused No.13) was charge sheeted only for offence under Section 27(b) of the NDPS Act. The order dated September 14, 2022 passed by Madras High Court filed against the order dated July 26, 2022 passed by the Additional District Judge (ADJ)-Special Court under Essential Commodities Act Cases, Coimbatore under Section 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.), 1973 to discharge him. As per the order dated July 26, 2022, the application for discharge filed by the appellant was dismissed. The Revision Petition filed against it was also dismissed.
While hearing the appeal, the Supreme Court's bench of Justices C.T. Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal dwelt on the scope of exercise of power under Section 227, Cr.P.C. It drew on the Court's decision in P. Vijayan v. State of Kerala & Anr.(2010). The Court held:Before considering the merits of the claim of both the parties, it is useful to refer to Section 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, which reads as under:
“227. Discharge. — If, upon consideration of the record of the case and the documents submitted therewith, and after hearing the submissions of the accused and the prosecution in this behalf, the Judge considers that there is not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused, he shall discharge the accused and record his reasons for so doing.” If two views are possible and one of them gives rise to suspicion only, as distinguished from grave suspicion, the trial Judge will be empowered to discharge the accused and at this stage he is not to see whether the trial will end in conviction or acquittal. Further, the words “not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused” clearly show that the Judge is not a mere post office to frame the charge at the behest of the prosecution, but has to exercise his judicial mind to the facts of the case in order to determine whether a case for trial has been made out by the prosecution. In assessing this fact, it is not necessary for the court to enter into the pros and cons of the matter or into a weighing and balancing of evidence and probabilities which is really the function of the court, after the trial starts.
The Court observed: "At the stage of Section 227, the Judge has merely to sift the evidence in order to find out whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. In other words, the sufficiency of ground would take within its fold the nature of the evidence recorded by the police or the documents produced before the court which ex facie disclose that there are suspicious circumstances against the accused so as to frame a charge against him.”
The Court also drew on Court's decision in Sajjan Kumar v. Central Bureau of Investigation (2010) to consider the scope of Section 227, Cr.P.C.
The Court observed: "The position of law enunciated in the said decisions would reveal that while calling upon to exercise the power under Section 227, Cr.P.C., the judge concerned has to consider only the record of the case and the documents produced along with the same. If on such consideration the court forms an opinion that there is no sufficient ground to proceed against the accused concerned, he shall be discharged after recording the reasons therefor. It is also evident from the precedence on the aforesaid question that while exercising the said power, the Court could sift the materials produced along with the final report only for the purpose of considering the question whether there is ground to proceed against the accused concerned."
The Court's judgement concluded that the appeal is allowed and the order passed by the Madras High Court filed against the order passed by the ADJ are quashed and set aside. As a necessary sequel, the appellant who is accused in pending on the files of Additional District Judge-Special Court under Essential Commodities Act Cases, Coimbatore is discharged from the said case, by allowing the prayer of appellant for discharge.
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