Cos 436 — Offences triable by Special Courts

Companies Act, 2013

Statutory text

(1)  Notwithstanding  anything  contained  in  the  Code  of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),—
(a)

[all offences specified under sub-section (1) of section 435] shall be triable only by the Special
Court established or designated for the area in which the registered office of the company in relation to which the offence is committed or where there are more Special Courts than one for such area, by such one of them as may be specified in this behalf by the High Court concerned;
(b)  where  a  person  accused  of,  or  suspected  of  the  commission  of,  an  offence  under  this  Act  is forwarded  to  a  Magistrate  under  sub-section  (2)  or  sub-section  (2A)  of  section  167  of  the  Code  of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), such Magistrate may authorise the detention of such person in such custody as he thinks fit for a period not exceeding fifteen days in the whole where such Magistrate is a Judicial Magistrate and seven days in the whole where such Magistrate is an Executive Magistrate:
Provided that where such Magistrate considers that the detention of such person upon or before the expiry  of  the  period  of  detention  is  unnecessary,  he  shall  order  such  person  to  be  forwarded  to  the
Special Court having jurisdiction;
(c) the Special Court may exercise, in relation to the person forwarded to it under clause (b), the same power which a Magistrate having jurisdiction to try a case may exercise under section 167 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) in relation to an accused person who has been forwarded to him under that section; and (d) a Special Court may, upon perusal of the police report of the facts constituting an offence under this Act or upon a complaint in that behalf, take cognizance of that offence without the accused being committed to it for trial.
(2) When trying an offence under this Act, a Special Court may also try an offence other than an offence under this Act with which the accused may, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) be charged at the same trial.
(3)  Notwithstanding  anything  contained  in  the  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure,  1973  (2  of  1974),  the
Special Court may, if it thinks fit, try in a summary way any offence under this Act which is punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years:
Provided that in the case of any conviction in a summary trial, no sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding one year shall be passed:
Provided further that when at the commencement of, or in the course of, a summary trial, it appears to the Special Court that the nature of the case is such that the sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding one year may have to be passed or that it is, for any other reason, undesirable to try the case summarily, the
Special Court shall, after hearing the parties, record an order to that effect and thereafter recall any witnesses who may have been examined and proceed to hear or rehear the case in accordance with the procedure for the regular trial.

Back to Cos