Unit 3: Legal Provision Relating to Trial Proceedings (Criminal) in Regular Courts
The frame: the Muluki Criminal Procedure Code 2074 (succeeding the State Cases Act 2049’s investigation regime and the old Code’s criminal-procedure chapters), with the Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act 2074 at the sentence’s end. The criminal trial is state-driven (the prosecution carries the case; the accused may remain silent) and presumption-protected — innocence presumed (Art 20(5)), self-incrimination barred (Art 20(7)), torture prohibited (Art 22), and the arrest’s custody safeguards running from the first hour (Art 20(1)–(3): grounds communicated, counsel from arrest, production within 24 hours).
3.1 Criminal Proceedings
3.1.1 First Information Report (FIR)
The FIR — the offence’s first account: lodged by the victim, informant or witness at the police station or the court (the court routing it to investigation), for cognizable offences; the police’s refusal to register is itself a grievance (the Superintendent’s oversight; the court’s mandamus face); the informant’s copy and the FIR’s evidentiary role (the earliest statement — corroboration’s anchor, contradiction’s material). Non-cognizable offences: the complaint’s court route.
3.1.2 Statement of Accused
The suspect’s questioning within the Art 20 safeguards: counsel’s access, no compulsion, the record’s accuracy and signature, the confession’s discipline — a confession to the police is not evidence of guilt (the compulsion-tainted confession’s exclusion; the custodial-confession jurisprudence), the statement’s use for discovery-information only.
3.1.3 Spot Investigation Report (Muchulkas such as Lasjach, Ghatanasthal, Khantalasi, Baramadi)
The investigation’s documentary spine — the muchulkas (formal memoranda/protocols): the Ghatanasthal (scene-of-incident) muchulka — the site’s inspection record (positions, traces, sketches, witnesses); the Lasjach (corpse-examination) muchulka — the inquest protocol (the body’s condition, injuries’ description — the forensic path’s first paper); the Khantalasi (search-and-seizure) muchulka
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