Those of you who have been practicing law for some time would know that practically, supplementary chargesheet could be filed by the Investigating Officer at any time, even after cognisance has been taken in the case and trial has started in the case.
This poses a lot of problems for the defence lawyers.
For example, consider a situation, Chargesheet has been filed in the case. Prosecution lawyer has started producing evidences. All the evidences and witnesses of the prosecution are taken on record and now, it’s the chance of defence to present evidences. Defence lawyer has a solid case ready.
Just at this moment, the Investigating Officer comes up with a supplementary chargesheet which totally changes everything that has been established at the trial till now.
What is happening in this case is that it is causing unreasonable shock to the defence and it’s opportunity of laying out an effective defence is jeopardised. To rectify this very situation, change in the new CRPC (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) has been introduced.
The proviso to Section 193(9) of BNSS lays out that further investigation after the filing of chargesheet must be completed within 90 days, after which if you want to file a supplementary chargesheet, you must take the permission of the court.
Bare act provision of Section 193 of BNSS:
Now, you can hope that there will be no unreasonable shocks to the defence due to the implementation of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
Further investigation after filing of Chargesheet under BNSS: Practical overview.
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