Discharge

CrPC Section 245 / BNSS Section 261

An order by a court discharging an accused person from the charge against them, before or during trial, when the court finds insufficient grounds to proceed. Distinguished from acquittal: an acquittal is after evidence is considered; a discharge is before full trial. Discharge petitions under CrPC Section 245 / BNSS Section 261 are filed when the charge sheet is weak.

In practice, a discharge order ends the prosecution before the accused ever faces a full trial, and it is the first real fork in a bank-fraud or economic-offence defence. Once the charge sheet is filed, defence counsel scrutinises it to see whether, even taken at its highest, the material discloses a triable case; if it does not, a discharge application is moved under CrPC Section 245 or, post-1 July 2024, BNSS Section 261. The court does not weigh evidence as in a trial, it only asks whether the grounds are sufficient to frame a charge. Getting the timing wrong matters: move too early and you concede the prosecution's version, frame the application badly and the same weak charge sheet survives to charge-framing, after which discharge is no longer available. A discharge is not an acquittal, but it spares the accused years of trial and the collateral consequences a pending criminal case carries for directors and guarantors in parallel recovery proceedings.