ValkyaEditorial

Tagged “trial-in-absentia”

2 articles on trial-in-absentia.

Weekly Report

BNSS one year on: bail, custody, default release, trial in absentia, and the s.482 discretion

A year into the operation of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the practitioner-level architecture is now substantially visible. The Supreme Court's April 2026 disposition in Narayan v. State of Madhya Pradesh settled the s.480(3) bail-condition question. Section 187(3)'s fragmentary-custody architecture has produced a competing High Court line — the Kulkarni interpretation against the Senthil Balaji line — without a definitive Article 141 resolution. The s.482 discretion has widened, on the Chhattisgarh High Court's reading. Trial in absentia under s.356, the s.183 recording-of-statements architecture, and the s.367–369 protective regime for accused with intellectual disability have each produced their own developing doctrine. This piece reads the year's jurisprudence as one practitioner architecture.

Valkya Editorial··11 min
Weekly Report

Section 356 BNSS: trial in absentia of proclaimed offenders and the constitutional question

Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita introduces, for the first time in the Indian general criminal-procedure framework, a structured architecture for trial in absentia of proclaimed offenders. The framework deems absconding to operate as a waiver of the right to be present and tried in person — subject to elaborate procedural safeguards including a 90-day mandatory wait, two consecutive arrest warrants, paper publication and State-funded counsel. A practitioner's read on the section, the constitutional question, and the early High Court engagement.

Valkya Editorial··10 min