A summons is the court's polite stage. Everything after it is worse, and the escalation is mechanical.
| Stage | What the court issues | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| First absence | Fresh summons | A further date, usually no more |
| Repeated absence | Bailable warrant | Arrest, but release on furnishing bond |
| Continued absence | Non-bailable warrant | Arrest and production, bail at the court's discretion |
| Evasion | Proclamation and attachment | Property may be attached, and evading is itself an offence |
| In a bailed matter | Forfeiture of bond | Surety proceeded against, bail liable to cancellation |
The escalation
- Summons. A direction to appear on a date. Attend, or have your lawyer seek exemption with a reason. Under Section 63 BNSS a summons may now be issued in encrypted or other electronic form bearing the image of the court's seal or a digital signature, so a summons that arrives by email is a summons and not a scam. Check the case number against the court's cause list before assuming either way.
- Bailable warrant. Issued on non-appearance. You can be arrested but must be released on furnishing bail in the amount specified.
- Non-bailable warrant. The police may arrest and you must be produced before the court, which then decides bail. Getting an NBW recalled requires an application explaining the absence.
- Proclamation under Section 84 BNSS (formerly Section 82 CrPC), requiring you to appear within not less than 30 days, published and affixed. It has to be publicly read where you ordinarily reside, affixed to your house and to the court house, and the court may direct publication in a daily newspaper.
- Attachment of property under Section 85 BNSS, which may be ordered at any time after the proclamation issues and, where the court is satisfied that you are about to dispose of property or move it out of its jurisdiction, simultaneously with the proclamation. Immovable property is attached through the Collector or by appointment of a receiver, and perishables and livestock may be sold at once.
- Declaration as a proclaimed offender, which is itself an offence to abscond from and which makes bail far harder. Non-appearance in response to a proclamation under Section 84 is a separate offence under Section 209 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, so absconding creates a second case on top of the first. Note that this last step is narrower than most people assume: under Section 84(4) the court may pronounce a person a proclaimed offender only where the offence is punishable with imprisonment of ten years or more, imprisonment for life, or death, and only after an inquiry. In an ordinary cheating, cheque or matrimonial case the escalation stops at proclamation and attachment.
Every unexplained absence is recorded and is quoted back at you when you apply for bail or seek recall of a warrant. Courts treat non-appearance as the clearest evidence of the risk of absconding. A case that would have ended in a routine acquittal or compounding can become a custody problem purely through non-attendance.
If you genuinely cannot attend
- Apply through your lawyer for exemption from personal appearance, supported by proof: medical certificate, travel record, employment document. The power is in Section 355 BNSS, under which the court may dispense with attendance where it is satisfied, for reasons recorded, that personal attendance is not necessary in the interests of justice, provided the accused is represented by an advocate. Note that condition: exemption is granted to a person who has counsel on record, not to a person who has simply gone quiet.
- Where you are outside India, seek permission for appearance by video conferencing. The explanation to Section 355 now says that personal attendance includes attendance through audio-video electronic means, which is what makes that a request the court can actually grant.
- In summons cases, particularly cheque bounce matters, courts routinely allow appearance through a pleader and exempt the accused from attending every date. Section 138 proceedings are summary in nature and are usually the easiest in which to obtain a standing exemption; how those hearings are conducted is set out in our guide on the procedure in a Section 138 cheque bounce case.
- Apply before the date, not after it. An exemption application filed on the morning of the hearing, through counsel, costs nothing. The same facts pleaded a month later, after a warrant, are an explanation rather than a request.
If a warrant has already issued
Do not wait for the police. File an application to recall the warrant, appear voluntarily on the next date, and explain the absence with documents. Courts respond far better to a person who comes in on their own than to one brought in on a warrant, and voluntary appearance is itself a point in favour at the bail stage.
Go in prepared rather than apologetic. Carry the documents that explain the absence, carry sureties with their identity and solvency papers in case the court insists on fresh bonds, and be ready to have the bail bond re-executed the same day. Where the offence is bailable, release on furnishing a bond is a matter of right; where it is not, this becomes a regular bail application and the distinctions are set out in our guide on the types of bail in India.
One caution about the underlying case. People stop attending most often when they believe the prosecution is baseless, which is precisely the situation in which non-attendance does the most damage, because it converts a defensible case into a bail problem and hands the complainant a point they did not have. If the complaint is false, the remedies against it run in parallel with attendance rather than instead of it, and they are set out in our note on being falsely accused of a crime.