Understanding Cognizable and Non-Cognizable offences in India with examples

We all have often come across the words cognizable and non-cognizable offence in newspapers and other media reports. Here, the word ‘cognizance’ does not mean knowledge as understood in general parlance, but instead, it has an extremely important meaning which decides the course of a criminal case. Read on to know the meaning and the difference between cognizable and non-cognizable offences and the criteria to determine whether an offence is cognizable or non-cognizable.

COGNIZABLE OFFENCE

Cognizable offences as per section 2(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 are those offences in which the police officer can arrest a person without an arrest warrant and to proceed with the investigation without prior order of the magistrate. A question often creeps in here, as to why so much power is granted to the police officer? This is because of the gravity of the situation which demands a quick response from the law enforcement agencies.

As per the general rule, all serious offences which are punishable by imprisonment for more than three years under the Indian Penal Code are considered as cognizable such as murder, robbery, rape, kidnapping etc. In all these cases, prompt police action for the arrest of the offender and the investigation into the case is highly necessary for successful prosecution; therefore these offences are treated as cognizable offences.

However, this is only a general criteria to determine whether an offence is cognizable or not; there are certain offences though serious but have been considered as non-cognizable, like, offences relating to marriage, and thus, for better accuracy law enforcement agencies refer Schedule one of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in which all the offences made punishable under the Indian Penal Code are classified into cognizable and non-cognizable offences.

Therefore, whenever a person goes to a police station to report the commission of an offence which the police officer reasonably believes to be cognizable, with regard to the Schedule one of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the police officer shall record every information relating to the commission of that offence, precisely known as an FIR, and then he may proceed to the spot to investigate the facts and circumstances of the case.

In the case of Madhu Bala v. Suresh Kumar, it was held that when information about the cognizable offence is received, the police official is duty bound to record it as FIR under section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and then to hold an investigation in the said offence.

NON-COGNIZABLE OFFENCE

A non-cognizable offence as per section 2(l) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is an offence in which the police officer has no authority to arrest a person without an arrest warrant and also cannot proceed with the investigation without an order of the magistrate. By now, you must all have guessed it right that the non-cognizable offence covers all those offences which are not so serious in nature.

Generally speaking, offences which are punishable under the Indian Penal Code with less than three years of imprisonment are categorized as non-cognizable offences. These offences are mostly in the nature of private wrongs, like, assault, defamation, simple hurt etc. It may, however, be noted that certain offences which are not considered serious, have been made cognizable and therefore, for more precision, Schedule one of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is referred by the law enforcement agencies.

Whenever any information is received by the police officer of the commission of a non-cognizable offence, his duty is to record the substance of the information in a book and refer the informant to the magistrate. Thereafter, the police officer shall act on the basis of the orders received from the magistrate. As held in the case of Pupan Deol Bajaj v. Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, the investigation of a non-cognizable offence by the police without the permission of the competent magistrate will be considered as illegal and subsequent permission granted cannot cure the illegality.

This is all about cognizable and non-cognizable offences, feel free to leave a comment below to let us know about your views and for more such interesting articles sign-up to EasyAdvocacy now!! 

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