Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

87. In the same judgment, it was further held as under:

"14. In State of W.B. v. Mohd. Khalid [State of W.B. v. Mohd. Khalid, (1995) 1 SCC 684 : 1995 SCC (Cri) 266] , this Court has observed as follows:

'13. It is necessary to mention here that taking cognizance of an offence is not the same thing as issuance of process. Cognizance is taken at the initial stage when the Magistrate applies his judicial mind to the facts mentioned in a complaint or to a police report or upon information received from any other person that an offence has been committed. The issuance of process is at a subsequent stage when after considering the material placed before it the court decides to proceed against the offenders against whom a prima facie case is made out.' [Ed.: As considered in State of Karnataka v. Pastor P. Raju, (2006) 6 SCC 728, 734, para 13 : (2006) 3 SCC (Cri) 179] The meaning of the said expression was also considered by this Court in Subramanian Swamy case [Subramanian Swamy v. Manmohan Singh, (2012) 3 SCC 64 : (2012) 1 SCC (Cri) 1041 : (2012) 2 SCC (L&S) 666] .

(2009) 2 SCC (L&S) 200] and Subramanian Swamy [Subramanian Swamy v. Manmohan Singh, (2012) 3 SCC 64 :

(2012) 1 SCC (Cri) 1041 : (2012) 2 SCC (L&S) 666] cases."

Having regard to the ratio of the aforesaid judgment [Anil Kumar v. M.K. Aiyappa, (2013) 10 SCC 705 : (2014) 1 SCC (Cri) 35] , we have no hesitation in answering the questions of law, as formulated in para 10 above, in the negative. In other words, we hold that an order directing further investigation under Section 156(3) CrPC cannot be passed in the absence of valid sanction."