Section 337: Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence
Section 337 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 has ingrained the double jeopardy rule and provided crucial safeguards to the people not to face multiple trials, which are usually meant to pronounce conviction or acquittal on any particular offence or act. Double jeopardy, a principle that guards against a man being tried twice for the same offence, is an ancient rule in legal jurisprudence all over the world. It originates from Roman law.
A person who has been tried and either convicted or acquitted by a court of competent jurisdiction for a specific offense cannot be tried again for the same offense, provided that the conviction or acquittal is still in effect. This protection is meant to avoid the harassment of the individual through successive legal actions for the same act.
While the section bars a retrial for the same offense, it does not bar a new trial for a different offense, even though the new offenses are from the same set of facts.
-However this is subject to the consent of the State Government, which is required for such a separate trial. Therefore, double jeopardy does not apply when new, unrelated charges are brought before the court.
It enables retrial of an individual for the commission of an offence when subsequent facts or circumstances were discovered subsequent to the primary trial and did not exist when that original trial occurred. New effects are established based on actions, by the perpetrator which occurred under previous actions unknown to that party before this development happened; thereby leading them back into courts.
The section also provides that if the original trial was conducted in a court that lacked jurisdiction over a particular offence arising from the same set of acts, the person may be tried in the appropriate court for the offence that was previously beyond the court's jurisdiction. This ensures that legal proceedings can be appropriately adapted in response to jurisdictional errors.
It ensures the strengthening of existing legal doctrines of double jeopardy but extends further into acquittals, with enhanced fairness under the criminal law process. As a result, it ensures that matters that are once conclusively adjudicated would not be brought to court unless through very proper and justified instances of revisitation. This allows the finality of judicial decision and protects against unwarranted exposure to law.
