SATENDER KUMAR ANTIL VERSUS CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (SUPREME COURT) 2025 INSC 909

(i) Section 64 of the BNSS, 2023 pertains to how summons shall be served. We are concerned with Section 64(2) of the BNSS, 2023 which mandates that a summons shall be served personally on the person summoned, if practicable, by delivering or tendering one of the duplicates of the summons. The proviso to Section 64(2) of the BNSS, 2023 provides a discretion of also serving summons by electronic communication, only when they bear the image of the Court’s seal in a manner and form that the State Government may provide by rules.

(ii) From a cumulative reading of Sections 63 and 64 of the BNSS, 2023, the argument on behalf of the applicant that Section 64(2) of the BNSS, 2023 relates to system-generated summons i.e., the e-Summons App, hence the requirement of the Court’s seal to make them look authentic, falls to the ground because, irrespective of the summons being issued under Section 63(i) or Section 63(ii) of the BNSS, 2023, it shall necessarily bear the seal of the Court, or the image of the seal of the Court, when the summons is being served.

(iii) Section 71 of the BNSS, 2023 provides for the service of summons on witnesses. Sub-section (1) which states that a Court issuing a summons to a witness may direct a copy of such summons to be served by electronic communication.

(iv) The contention of the applicant that a notice under Section 35 of the BNSS, 2023 falls within the same category as a summons under Section 71 of the BNSS, 2023, and therefore, since the latter allows electronic mode of service, the former must also be permitted to be transmitted electronically, cannot be accepted, for the simple reason that a summons under Section 71 of the BNSS, 2023, has no immediate bearing on the liberty of an individual in case of its non-compliance. However, a notice under Section 35 of the BNSS, 2023 could have an immediate bearing on the liberty 18 of the individual in case of its non-compliance, as laid down under Section 35(6) of the BNSS, 2023.

(v) Furthermore, a summons issued by a Court under Sections 63 or 71 of the BNSS, 2023, and a notice issued by the Investigating Agency under Section 35 of the BNSS, 2023 travel on different footings and cannot be equated with each other. A summons issued by a Court is a judicial act, whereas a notice issued by the Investigating Agency is an executive act. Hence, the procedure prescribed for a judicial act cannot be read into the procedure prescribed for an executive act

(vi) Hence, when viewed from any lens, we are unable to convince ourselves that electronic communication is a valid mode of service of notice under Section 35 of the BNSS, 2023, since its conscious omission is a clear manifestation of the legislative intent. Introducing a procedure into Section 35 of the BNSS, 2023, that has not been specifically provided for by the Legislature, would be violative of its intent.