Charge shall state the offence with which the accused is charged and the “law and section of law” against which the offence is said to have been committed shall be mentioned in the charge, in this regard Section: 221(1) & (4) Cr.P.C.

 2022 MLD 1046

Charge shall state the offence with which the accused is charged and the “law and section of law” against which the offence is said to have been committed shall be mentioned in the charge, in this regard Section: 221(1) & (4) Cr.P.C. can be referred۔

Charge is framed by learned trial court after perusing the police report or complaint, all other documents and statements filed by the prosecution۔

The whole object of framing charge is to enable the accused to know that what is precise accusation against him and concentrate his attention on the case that he has to meet i.e. to ensure that the accused had sufficient notice of the nature of accusation with which he was charged and secondly to make the Court concerned conscious regarding the real points in issue. Although charge must contain facts which are essential factors of the offence in question, however, no yardstick can be fixed qua the particulars which should be mentioned in the charge as it depends upon facts/circumstances of each case. Prime consideration which is of vital importance/mandatory with respect to charge is that accused must not be misled in his defence by omission/error in the charge. If contents of charge are not misleading the accused in his defence then there is no defect of material nature in the charge; in other words, if nature of accusation has been incorporated in the charge with relevant provision of law applicable in categorical manner eliminating possibility of any confusion or prejudice then such charge cannot be termed as defective. If particulars of the offence are not mentioned in the charge and accused is convicted for said offence then it can be said that such omission caused prejudice to the accused in his defence but if particulars and provision of law are mentioned in the charge and subsequently same is not proved during trial then accused certainly gets the benefit of acquittal and practically speaking no prejudice is caused to the accused i.e. in simple words, framing of charge does not mean conviction and if it is not proved then of course, it results into acquittal and accused does not suffer from any prejudice.