Test: Criminal Law - 2 - CUET Humanities MCQ

Section 2 (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 defines cognizable offences.
Cognizable offence means where a police officer may arrest without warrant, as per the First Schedule of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 or under any other law for the time being in force.
Cognizable offences are usually offences which are serious in nature.

Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act clearly states that, 'A confession made by an accused person is irrelevant in a criminal proceeding, if the making of the confession appears to the Court to have been caused by any inducement, threat or promise having reference to the charge against the accused person, proceeding from a person in authority and sufficient, in the opinion of the Court, to give the accused person grounds which would appear to him reasonable for supposing that by making it he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him.'

Section 2(x) Cr.P.C. defines warrant case as: 'Warrant case means a case relating to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term exceeding two years.'

"Code of Criminal Procedure" is mainly, though not purely, a procedural law and there are also certain provisions, which are partly in the nature of substantive law.

Option (1) is incorrect: Under Section 31 of the Indian Evidence Act, admissions are not conclusive proof of the matters admitted, but they may operate as estoppels.
Option (2) is correct: Under Section 31 of the Indian Evidence Act, admissions are not conclusive proof of the matters admitted, but they may operate as estoppels.
Option (3) is incorrect: Admissions are not always relevant.

Motive is the ulterior objective behind doing an act. It is the driving force behind intention or commission of an act. The criminal law does not take into account motive in affixing criminal liability or in determining criminal culpability. This is the reason why the criminal law does not care whether one has stolen a loaf of bread to feed a starving person or stolen medicine to save someone's life, as long as it is a prohibited act, done knowingly.

Offender, under the law of crime, is a person who has committed an illegal act and is declared guilty for the same by court after a complete investigation and trial.

A bailable offence is an offence of relatively less severity and for which the accused has a right to be released on bail. In case of bailable offence the police has power to grant bail, but after the challans are filed in court, the accused person has to fill the prescribed bail bond in order to get regular bail from court. Thus, it is correct to say that bail, in a bailable offence, can be granted either by the police officer or by the court. Bail is a matter of right in case of bailable offences.

Section 26 of the Evidence Act stipulates that no confession made by an accused person shall be proved against him, unless it is made in the immediate presence of a Magistrate. Therefore, any confessional statement by the accused given to the Magistrate is admissible.

Commission is when a person actually executes his plans and commits a wrongful act.
The severity of punishment is the maximum in case of the commission of crime.

Summons are issued by the Court to any person, to appear before the court, to give evidence as witness or produce a document which is in his possession before the court on a particular date. Issue and service of summons are significant in both the civil and criminal cases as they provide a mechanism to start legal proceedings before the court of law. Summons are generally issued to the defendant in a suit and the witnesses who are being called to adjudicate the case in any civil proceedings.

Section 80 of the Indian Evidence Act gives the evidentiary value to the judicial confession and expresses that a confession made in the presence of magistrate or in the court which is recorded by the magistrate as prescribed by the law shall be presumed to be true and genuine confession and the accused can be tried with the offence. Admission, as defined under Section 17 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, is "An admission is a statement, oral or documentary or contained in electronic form, which suggests any inference as to any fact in issue or relevant fact, and which is made by any of the persons, and under the circumstances hereinafter mentioned".

A warrant case means a case relating to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term exceeding two years. A summons case means a case relating to an offence, not being a warrant - case. Classification of summons case and warrant case is useful to determine the trial procedure to be adopted as in a summons case, the accused can plead guilty by post after the summons has been issued without appearing before the Magistrate. Although, in a warrant case trial, there is no such provision. The formulation of a formal charge is important in the warrant case. Moreover, the classification is also important to decide the question of issuance of process to the accused. In a summons case, summons are issued addressed to the defendant or the witness whereas in a warrant case warrants are issued, addressed to the police officer.

The compoundable offences are given in Section 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Compoundable offences fall into two broad categories:
Where the permission of the court is not required - Some offences such as trespass, adultery, defamation, etc. do not require the court's permission to be compounded.
Where the permission of the court is required - Offences of a more serious nature such as theft, assault and criminal breach of trust require the court's permission to be settled. The offences which are not given in Section 320 of the Criminal Procedure Code are considered to be non-compoundable offences. These offences are of a more serious and grievous nature, which affect society as a whole and not just an individual. Such offences usually include voluntarily causing grievous hurt, hurt by dangerous weapon, dishonest misappropriation, kidnapping or abducting to murder, etc.
So, option 4 is the answer.

White-collar crimes are socio-economic crimes. For such kind of crimes, just the actus reus is required to be proved, mens rea is not taken into consideration once actus rea is proved.