Section 34: Non-prosecution order and private suit
Statutory text (Thai original)
คำสั่งไม่ฟ้องคดี หาตัดสิทธิผู้เสียหายฟ้องคดีโดยตนเองไม่
English translation
An order not to prosecute a case does not deprive the injured person of the right to institute the prosecution himself.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 34 protects the injured person's independent right to prosecute, first established in Section 28(2), by making clear that an official order not to prosecute does not bind the victim. Even where the prosecutor declines to bring the case, the injured person may still file a private prosecution of their own. The section reinforces the dual-track structure of Thai criminal procedure, in which public and private prosecution rights run in parallel and the failure of one does not extinguish the other.
Why this matters in practice
A prosecutor's decision not to file is not the end of the road: as the injured person you can still bring the case yourself. Watch the limitation period, which keeps running while you wait, and gather your own evidence because you will bear the burden without state backing. If the prosecutor has declined your case and you want to prosecute privately, consult a Thai lawyer promptly.
Cited in 2 Supreme Court decisions (1986 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2153/2567 (2024)
- Decision 1547/2529 (1986)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
If the prosecutor decides not to charge, can the victim still sue?
Yes. Under Section 34, an order not to prosecute does not deprive the injured person of the right to institute the prosecution himself.
Does a non-prosecution order end the case forever?
No. It only ends the state's action. The injured person retains an independent right under Sections 28(2) and 34 to file a private prosecution, subject to the limitation period.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 34 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 34. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-34/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 34 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-34/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-34/"><p>An order not to prosecute a case does not deprive the injured person of the right to institute the prosecution himself.</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 34 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-34/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.