Criminal defence before the Punjab & Haryana High Court at Chandigarh and the district courts of Punjab and Haryana — bail, quashing of FIRs, trial defence, appeals, and proceedings against a person declared a proclaimed offender.

A criminal case does not begin when the trial starts. It begins with an FIR, and by the time most people take advice, decisions have already been made that will shape everything that follows.

What is said at the police station, whether anticipatory bail was sought before or after arrest, what was recorded in the first statement — these are frequently more consequential than anything argued years later at trial.

We act principally for the defence.

Anticipatory and regular bail

Where an FIR has been registered and arrest is apprehended, an application for anticipatory bail may be moved before the Sessions Court or the High Court. Where a person is already in custody, the application is for regular bail.

Bail is not a formality and it is not granted on sympathy. What matters is the nature of the accusation, the severity of the punishment prescribed, the antecedents of the accused, the likelihood of the accused absconding or tampering with evidence, and the stage of the investigation.

Timing is frequently decisive. An application moved before the investigating agency has committed itself to a position is in a different situation from one moved after a chargesheet has been filed. Where interim protection is available, it is worth seeking promptly rather than after arrest, when the position becomes considerably harder.

Conditions imposed on bail — surrender of a passport, restriction on leaving the jurisdiction, attendance at a police station — can be onerous, particularly for a person who works abroad. Those conditions can be applied to be varied, and frequently should be.

Quashing of FIRs and criminal proceedings

Where an FIR discloses no offence, where the allegations are absurd on their face, where the proceeding is a civil dispute dressed as a criminal one, or where the parties have reached a settlement in a matter capable of compromise, the High Court may be moved to quash the proceedings.

This jurisdiction is exercised sparingly and it is not a substitute for trial. The court does not weigh evidence at that stage or decide whether the accused is guilty. The question is narrower: taking the allegations at their highest, do they disclose a cognisable offence at all?

The category that arises most often in this region is the property dispute converted into a criminal complaint. A family disagreement over inheritance becomes an allegation of forgery or criminal breach of trust; a failed transaction becomes cheating. Where the substance is civil, that can be demonstrated — but it has to be demonstrated from the record rather than asserted.

False complaints and matrimonial cases

A substantial part of our criminal practice is the defence of complaints filed under the provisions dealing with cruelty to a married woman, frequently alongside allegations of criminal breach of trust in respect of dowry articles.

Some such complaints are genuine and the law exists because they are. Others are filed to obtain leverage in a matrimonial dispute, and are pressed against a wide circle of relatives — parents, unmarried sisters, family members living in another city or another country — who have no involvement in the marriage at all.

The answer in those cases is generally in the documents and the sequence of events: when the parties last resided together, when the complaint was made and in relation to what, what was said in earlier proceedings between the same parties, and whether the persons named had any occasion to commit the acts alleged.

For clients living abroad, this frequently intersects with a passport being impounded or a Look Out Circular being issued. Those are separate proceedings with separate remedies, and both can be addressed.

Proclaimed offender proceedings

Where a person fails to appear despite process, the court may declare them a proclaimed offender and initiate proceedings for attachment of property. This happens with some regularity to people living outside India who were never served, never told, and in many cases first learn of the case when they attempt to travel.

The declaration can be challenged and the proceedings can be recalled, but it requires establishing what service was actually effected and when the person came to know of the case. Delay makes this harder rather than easier.

Trial, revision and appeal

Where a matter goes to trial, most of the work is evidentiary. Cross-examination is prepared in advance around the specific admissions required, with the documents ready to put to the witness. An admission recorded in the deposition cannot be withdrawn; an argument advanced without a foundation in the record generally fails.

We appear in appeals and revisions before the Sessions Court and the High Court, both against conviction and against orders passed at earlier stages of the proceedings.

A note on the new criminal statutes

The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam have replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.

Offences committed before the new statutes came into force continue to be tried under the earlier law. Many matters presently before the courts therefore still proceed under the IPC and the CrPC, and the section numbers a client has been given may be from either scheme. We will tell you which applies to your case.

What we need from you

The FIR if one exists, any notice or summons received, the bail order if bail has been granted, and any earlier proceedings between the same parties — including civil ones, which in this region are frequently the origin of the criminal complaint.

An accurate view cannot be formed from a description of the allegation. Bring what exists, including the documents you consider unhelpful.

See also our page on criminal matters for non-resident Indians, where the position of a person facing proceedings from outside India is dealt with separately.

Vaqeelsaab — Advocates. Practising before the Punjab & Haryana High Court at Chandigarh and the district courts of Punjab and Haryana.

+91 94160 09800 | info@vaqeelsaab.com