Section 496 — Offences triable by Special Court. Successor to s.280B of the 1961 Act.
Section 496 is in Chapter XXII — Offences and Prosecutions, which runs from section 473 to section 498.
Sub-section (1) operates irrespective of anything contained in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Under clause (a), offences punishable under this Chapter are triable only by the Special Court, if one has been so designated, for the area or areas, or for the cases or class or group of cases, in which the offence has been committed. Under clause (b), a Special Court may take cognizance of the offence for which the accused is committed for trial upon a complaint made by an authority authorised in that behalf under the Act.
Sub-section (2) deals with the transition for the court competent to try offences under section 520. Where that court has been designated as a Special Court under this section, it shall continue to try the offences before it, and offences arising under the Act after such designation. Where it has not been designated as a Special Court, it may continue to try such offence pending before it till its disposal.
Prosecutions under the Chapter turn on tax material and are better heard by a court set aside for them, so the section routes them to a designated Special Court and displaces the ordinary forum rules of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Requiring cognizance to follow a complaint by an authorised authority keeps the initiation of these prosecutions within the Department. Sub-section (2) prevents cases already under way from being disturbed by a later designation.
The exclusivity in clause (1)(a) is conditional on designation — the words are "triable only by the Special Court, if so designated" — so where no Special Court has been designated for the relevant area or class of cases, the clause does not by itself create a forum. Cognizance has a single gateway: clause (1)(b) allows a Special Court to take cognizance upon a complaint made by an authority authorised in that behalf under the Act, so the ordinary routes to cognizance under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 do not apply, that Sanhita being expressly overridden by the opening words of sub-section (1). Sub-section (2) draws the line between two situations: a section 520 court that is itself designated carries on with what is before it and takes new offences arising under the Act after designation, whereas one that is not designated may only see out the cases already pending before it. The section creates no offence and prescribes no punishment; it decides forum and cognizance alone.
A prosecution under the Chapter is to be launched in an area for which a Special Court has been designated. The complaint must come from an authority authorised under the Act before that court can take cognizance under clause (1)(b). If the ordinary court competent under section 520 already had a similar case pending and has not itself been designated, sub-section (2)(b) lets it carry that case through to disposal, but new offences arising under the Act go to the Special Court.
You meet this section when a prosecution complaint under Chapter XXII is filed: it decides which court will hear it, and it is the provision relied on when the jurisdiction of the court, or the authority of the complainant, is objected to at the threshold.
the offences punishable under this Chapter shall be triable only by the Special Court, if so designated, for the area or areas or for cases or class or group of cases, as the case may be, in which the offence has been committed
a Special Court may, upon a complaint made by an authority authorised in this behalf under this Act, take cognizance of the offence for which the accused is committed for trial
which has not been designated as a Special Court, may continue to try such offence pending before it till its disposal
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
