The main legal point established in the judgment is that both the original and supplementary reports under Section 173(2) and Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 must be considered conjointly by the Magistrate to determine the existence of grounds to presume that the accused has committed the offence.

JUDGMENT

Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, J.

Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises from a judgment of a learned Single Judge of the High Court of Kerala dated 3 March 2021.

3. On 3 February 2016, FIR 205 of 2016 was registered at police station Alappuzha North against the appellants for the alleged commission of offences punishable under Sections 294(b), 323, and 324 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code 1806. The first appellant was named as the second accused, the second appellant as the third accused and the third appellant as the first accused. On 26 September 2016, the Sub-Inspector of police at Alappuzha North police station submitted a report under Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 implicating the appellants in the commission of the alleged offences. The case came to be numbered as CC No 2177 of 2016 before the JFCM Court - I, Alappuzha.

4. The first appellant moved the Superintendent of Police and the IGP complaining of the registration of a false case and sought a further investigation in the matter. On 21 February 2017, the Dy SP (Administration) Alappuzha submitted a report recording that there were serious flaws in the earlier investigation. On 6 December 2017, the Dy SP Crime Branch submitted a supplementary report before the court of the JFCM Court - I, Alappuzha recommending that the proceedings against the appellants be dropped on the ground that no offence had been established during the course of the further investigation.

5. The first respondent filed a protest petition. By an order dated 19 May 2018, the Magistrate dismissed the protest petition for want of prosecution. On 30 May 2018, the Magistrate accepted the final report observing that the protest petition lodged by the complainant had been dismissed.

6. The first respondent at whose behest the FIR was registered challenged the order of the Magistrate before the Sessions Court, Alappuzha. Exercising the revisional jurisdiction, the Sessions Judge set aside the order of the Magistrate on 26 October 2019 and directed the Magistrate to take the case on file and proceed further in accordance with law. While doing so, the Sessions Judge relied on a judgment of a Single Judge of the High Court of Kerala in Joseph v. Antony Joseph, 2018 (3) KHC 23. Aggrieved by the order of the Sessions Judge, the appellants moved the High Court under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The High Court by its impugned judgment dated 3 March 2021 dismissed the petition on the following grounds:

(i) The positive and negative reports submitted under the Sub-sections (2) and (8) of Section 173 respectively must be read conjointly to determine if there is prima facie ground for believing that the accused has committed the offence. The reports do not have a separate existence. This position is settled by the decision of the Supreme Court in Vinay Tyagi v. Irshad Ali, (2013) 5 SCC 762;

(ii) There is no scope for filling a protest petition against a report under Section 173(2) or Section 173(8) of the CrPC. The protest petition and its dismissal for non-prosecution does not have any legal impact; and

(iii) The scope of a protest petition would arise only when both the reports that is, the final report under Section 173(2) CrPC and the supplementary report under Section 173(8) CrPC, are "negative reports".

7. While entertaining the Special Leave Petition on 13 December 2021, the following order was passed by this Court, recording the submissions of the appellants:

"1 Mr R Basant, Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners, has, while placing reliance on the decision of this Court in Vinay Tyagi v Irshad Alia alias Deepak (2013) 5 SCC 762, (paragraphs 41 and 42), submitted that since a supplementary report under Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 was presented before the Magistrate after further investigation, the Magistrate would be required to take into account both the report under Section 173(2) as well as the supplementary re