Article 20(2) of the Constitution is extracted hereunder :
“20. (2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.”
Article 20(2) says that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. This is called the doctrine of double jeopardy. The objective of the Article is to avoid harassment, which may be caused by successive criminal proceedings, where the person has committed only one crime. There is a law maxim related to this, nemo debet bis vexari. This means that no man shall be put twice in peril for the same offence.
There are two aspects of doctrine of jeopardy viz. Autrefois convict and Autrefois acquit. Autrefois convict means that the person has been previously convicted in respect of the same offence. Autrefois acquit means that the person has been acquitted on a same charge on which he is being prosecuted. Constitution bars double punishment for the same offence. The conviction for such offence does not bar for subsequent trial and conviction for another offence and it does not matter even if some ingredients of these two offences are common.
Section 300 Cr.P.C. is extracted hereunder :
“Section 300. Person once convicted or acquitted not to be tried for same offence.–
(1) A person who has once been tried by a Court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted of such offence shall, while such conviction or acquittal remains in force, not be liable to be tried again for the same offence, nor on the same facts for any other offence for which a different charge from the one made against him might have been made under sub-section (1) of section 221, or for which he might have been convicted under sub-section (2) thereof.
(2) A person acquitted or convicted of any offence may be afterwards tried, with the consent of the State Government, for any distinct offence for which a separate charge might have been made against him at the former trial under sub-section (1) of section 220.
(3) A person convicted of any offence constituted by any act causing consequences which, together with such act, constituted a different offence from that of which he was convicted, may be afterwards tried for such last- mentioned offence, if the consequences had not happened, or were not known to the Court to have happened, at the time when he was convicted.
(4) A person acquitted or convicted of any offence constituted by any acts may, notwithstanding such acquittal or conviction, be subsequently charged with, and tried for, any other offence constituted by the same acts which he may have committed if the Court by which he was first tried was not competent to try the offence with which he is subsequently charged.
(5) A person discharged under section 258 shall not be tried again for the same offence except with the consent of the Court by which he was discharged or of any other Court to which the first mentioned Court is subordinate.
(6) Nothing in this section shall affect the provisions of Section 26 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, (10 of 1897) or of section 188 of this Code.”
Section 300 refers to Sections 220 and 221 Cr.P.C. No doubt it appears that a person who has been convicted or acquitted of the “same offence” cannot be tried again considering the aforesaid provisions. Section 220(1) provides that if one series of acts is so connected together as to form the same transaction, more offences than one are committed by the same person, he may be charged with and tried at one trial for every such offence. Section 220(1) is extracted hereunder :
“220. Trial for more than one offence. -(1) If, in one series of acts so connected together as to form the same transaction, more offences than one are committed by the same person, he may be charged with, and tried at one trial for, every such offence.”
Section 221(1) is applicable where it is doubtful what offence has been committed. When a single act or series of acts is of such a nature that it is doubtful which of several offences the facts which can be proved would constitute, the accused may be charged with having committed all or any of such offences and such charges can be tried together.
Reference
State of Jharkhand v. Lalu Prasad Yadav (2017)