Trial to be conducted by Public Prosecutor :
Section – 225. In every trial before a Court of Session, the prosecution shall be conducted by a Public Prosecutor.
COMMENTS
Procedure for trial before Court of Session – Sections 225 to 237 deal with the procedure in trials before a Court of Session. This procedure is practically the same as that prescribed for the trial of warrant-cases by a Magistrate with slight variations. At the first hearing the Public Prosecutor will open the case and the Judge, after going through the record and hearing the submissions of the accused, if any, unit consider whether there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against the accused. If, in his opinion, there are no such grounds, he shall discharge the accused. Otherwise, he shall frame a charge which shall be read out and explained to the accused and his plea will be recorded. If he pleads guilty, the Judge may convict him. Otherwise, a date will be fixed for hearing of evidence for the prosecution. The accused will have the right to cross-examine witnesses. Witnesses may be recalled for cross-examination. If after hearing the evidence and examining the accused and hearing the arguments, the Judge considers that there is no evidence to support the prosecution, he shall acquit the accused. Otherwise, the accused shall be called upon to enter on his defence and adduce his evidence for which there will be an adjournment. After the completion of the defence evidence, the prosecution and the defence will be heard and the court will deliver judgment. If the judgment is one of conviction, the accused will be given an opportunity to make his representation, if any, on the punishment proposed to be awarded and such representation shall be taken into consideration before imposing the sentence. This last provision has been made because it may happen that the accused may have some grounds to urge for giving him consideration in regard to the sentence such as that he is the bread-winner of the family of which the court may not be made aware during the trial.
The procedure to be followed in the case of a prosecution for defamation against high dignitaries and public servants now contained in section 198E has been incorporated in section 237 with some modifications.