What is the effect of proceedings taken place in the wrong place?

Question: What is the effect of proceedings taken place in the wrong place?

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Answer

Chapter XXXV of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals with the effect of irregularity in proceedings before Criminal Courts. Section 462 in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 deals with the effect of proceedings taken place in the wrong place. Section 462 runs down as below:

“Proceedings in the wrong place. No finding, sentence, or order of any Criminal Court shall be set aside merely on the ground that the inquiry, trial, or other proceedings in the course of which it was arrived at or passed, took place in a wrong sessions division, district, sub-division or other local areas, unless it appears that such error has in fact occasioned a failure of justice.”

It is to be noted that the keynote of this and the following sections are failures of justice. In the case of Nasiruddin Khan v. State of Bihar, AIR 1973 SC 186 where personnel of Bihar Military Police was tried at Patna for the offence of deserting in Kashmir, the Supreme Court held that the trial at Patna was not vitiated as there was no failure of justice on account of the trial having been conducted in Patna, particularly where there was no allegation of failure of justice.

The object of section 462 is to uphold, in most cases, the orders passed by Criminal Courts that lacked local jurisdiction or had committed illegalities or irregularities unless failure of justice has been occasioned or is likely to be occasioned thereby. An order which is void for want of jurisdiction must nevertheless be regarded as valid unless it is set aside by a Court of competent jurisdiction.

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