Section 190: Cognizance of offences by Magistrates

Introduction

Taking cognizance, generally, means taking notice of the offence that has occurred. It does not involve any formal procedure laid down by law, but a magistrate is said to take cognizance when he applies his mind to the offence that has been committed before the offence and the accused is sent for trial.

• Section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) deals with the power of the magistrate to take cognizance of an offence.

Section 190 of CrPC

• This Section deals with the cognizance of offences by magistrates. It states that

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Chapter, any Magistrate of the first class, and any Magistrate of the second class specially empowered in this behalf under sub-section (2), may take cognizance of any offence-

(a) upon receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such offence

(b) upon a police report of such facts

(c) upon information received from any person other than a police officer, or upon his own knowledge, that such offence has been committed.

(2) The Chief Judicial Magistrate may empower any Magistrate of the second class to take cognizance under sub-section (1) of such offences as are within his competence to inquire into or try.

• This section gives power to both first-class and second-class magistrates to take cognizance of an offence.
  • A first-class magistrate is one who can give a sentence to an accused of up to 3 years in jail and can also charge a fine of rupees up to 5000.
  • A second-class magistrate is one who can pass a sentence against the accused of up to 1 year of imprisonment and can charge a fine of up to 1000 rupees.
• The judicial Magistrate of the first class can per-se take cognizance of an offence. Whereas a Judicial Magistrate of the Second class can take cognizance only if he is empowered by the Chief Judicial Magistrate in this behalf.
• If a magistrate has taken cognizance of any offence under Section 190(1) (a) or (b) and if the magistrate was not empowered by the law to take cognizance based on the lack of jurisdiction, then the proceedings conducted by him in furtherance of taking of cognizance will not be set aside as long as it is known that the cognizance was taken in good faith.
• The presence of the accused is not required for the purpose of taking cognizance under this section.

Case Law

• The State of West Bengal v. Abani Kumar Banerjee (1950)- In this case, the Calcutta High Court discussed the scope of the words taking cognizance and stated that this term is not defined anywhere in CrPC but keeping in mind the circumstances of the case, it can be said that a magistrate is said to have taken cognizance when he applies his judicial mind in a case.