Holding non-mentioning of particular Section in prayer clause of petition to be inadvertent error, P&H HC allows amendment to be made in bail order

Read Order: Sarbjit Singh v. State of Punjab 

Monika Rahar

Chandigarh, January 24,  2022: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has exercised its inherent power under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. to allow the petitioner to include Section 201 of IPC (added subsequently to the FIR) to the headnote and prayer clause of his petition, the filing of which resulted in an order of the High Court earlier this month, granting the petitioner bail. 

While observing that the non- mentioning of Section 201 IPC in the headnote as well as in the prayer clause of the petition was an inadvertent error, the Bench of Justice Vikas Bahl allowed the amendment of the headnote, as well as the prayer clause of the petition, by allowing to add Section 201 IPC. 

In the case at hand, the High Court granted bail to the petitioner by its earlier Order dated January 17, 2022, but in the said Order, Section 201 of the IPC was not reflected owing to the fact that it was subsequently added in the FIR and thus, the petitioner neither mentioned it in the head of the petition nor in the prayer clause. Hence, the present application under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. was made for the inclusion of Section 201 IPC in the said order and petition. 

The petitioner’s counsel appearing before the Court submitted that since the applicant-petitioner was not aware of the addition of Section 201 IPC in the case, thus, inadvertently the said Section was neither mentioned in the head of the petition nor in the prayer clause and therefore, the same was not reflected in Court’s earlier order. Thus, the counsel prayed for the amendment of the headnote, as well as the prayer clause of the petition for adding Section 201 IPC to it. 

Keeping in view the above said facts and circumstances, the Court allowed the aforesaid amendment and the order granting bail to the applicant-petitioner was directed to be read as including Section 201 IPC also, in addition to the other Sections as mentioned in the order.

Thus, the petition was allowed.