autrefois acquit

Autrefois acquit (Law French for “formerly acquitted”) is a plea in bar: a person who has been tried by a competent court and acquitted cannot be tried again for the same offence, or on the same facts for any other offence for which a different charge could have been framed. The BNSS gives effect to this rule.

Article 20(2) of the Constitution protects only against a second prosecution and punishment, so it covers autrefois convict, not acquittal; the protection after acquittal comes from the BNSS. The earlier proceeding must have been a trial before a court. Departmental inquiries and proceedings before customs authorities are not prosecutions, as held in Maqbool Hussain (1953).

Example

Having been acquitted of theft of the scooter, the accused raised the plea of autrefois acquit under s.337 BNSS when charged again on the same facts with criminal misappropriation.

In Indian law

• Section 337, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (old s.300 CrPC)
• Maqbool Hussain v. State of Bombay, 1953 INSC 40

See also

autrefois convict · double jeopardy · acquittal · nemo debet bis vexari pro una et eadem causa

Read more in the study notes

• Article 20: rights of the accused (Constitutional Law I)