There are 2 types of suits :-
- Criminal Suit
- Civil Suit
Criminal Suit:-It is a lawsuit where the defendant is accused of violating the criminal law of the country. Breaking a criminal law is considered a crime against the state and thus is prosecuted by the state. Below are the standard protocols on the criminal cases procedure:-
- Filing of an FIR– First, an FIR is filed by the Police against the accused, he gets arrested and is then sent to either police custody or judicial custody.
- Investigation-The Police investigate the case, collects pieces of evidence and files a charge sheet in a court of law.
- Framing of charges– In the charge sheet, the investigating agency frames charges against the accused and the charges are read out to the accused in a court of law.
- Plea of guilty– After the charges are read to the accused, he either has to plead guilty or not guilty. If pleads guilty, the case gets over then and there and the judge announces the sentence. If not guilty, the case goes to trial.
- Prosecution evidence– After the case enters the trial, the prosecutor shows pieces of evidence to the court and presents witnesses if any.
- Statement of the accused– The statement of the accused is taken which is cross-examined by the prosecutor.
- Defence evidence– The defence then counters the evidence showed by the prosecutor and presents his own evidence and witnesses which is then again cross-examined by the prosecutor.
- Closing statements– After all the witnesses and pieces of evidence is produced, both the counsels give their closing statements.
- Judgement– The judge at the end comes to a verdict and reserves it’s judgement. If the court finds him not guilty, The accused will be acquitted. But if the court finds the accused guilty then the accused gets convicted and the judge shall announce the sentence which the convict has to serve.
This is the standard procedure followed in 70% of the cases. In the rest of them, this process either gets altered or delayed.