Let me answer this calmly and clearly, because summons cause a level of panic disproportionate to what they actually require in the large majority of cases. A summons issued by the Judicial Magistrate in Kanpur under Section 227 of the BNSS (the old Section 204 CrPC) does require you to respond — ignoring it is never the right move — but responding does not always mean standing in the dock in person on every date.

Section 228 of the BNSS (previously Section 205 CrPC) specifically empowers the Magistrate, at the time of issuing a summons, to dispense with your personal attendance and permit you to appear through your advocate. This is a routine facility in summons-triable cases and in many warrant cases where the hearing is administrative or procedural rather than substantive. Your lawyer files an application seeking this exemption, undertaking that you will appear personally whenever the court genuinely requires it — for instance, at the stage where your statement is to be recorded under Section 351 BNSS, or at any hearing the court marks as requiring your presence. Courts in Kanpur's Magistrate Courts grant these exemptions routinely in appropriate cases, and the result is that you attend through counsel on most dates while reserving personal appearance for the hearings that truly demand it.

What you must never do is ignore the summons or leave it unresponded to. Non-appearance without a properly filed exemption application or without your counsel appearing on your behalf is what causes the Magistrate to issue a warrant — and a warrant converts a manageable situation into an urgent and embarrassing one. The correct response to a Kanpur summons is proactive: engage a lawyer immediately, have them enter appearance on your behalf on the first date, and simultaneously file the exemption application under Section 228 if the nature of the case and stage of proceedings warrant it. Counsel from the Kanpur criminal lawyers panel can appear for you at the district courts in Kanpur and file the necessary applications so your case moves forward without disrupting your work or daily life.

One important note: the Magistrate retains full discretion to require your personal presence at any stage, and that direction must be complied with. A Section 228 exemption is a facility, not an absolute right, and it can be withdrawn at the court's discretion. In more serious matters and at key evidentiary stages, personal appearance is often unavoidable and appropriate. But for the great majority of routine dates following the issue of summons in a summons-triable case in Kanpur, appearing through counsel is entirely lawful and entirely normal.