In trial, a dispatch register (1976 to 1992) was produced by prosecution with two witnesses (issuing authority SDM and one clerk of relevant time). SDM denied his signature on Scheduled tribe certificate in question which was issued in November 1983 and said that only one dispatch register was in the office and entry of same certificate must be in the register which is not there. Ultimately sentence was awarded u/s 420 and 471.
The register has entries of ST/SC/Character/income/Himachali certificates in the register from 1976 till May, 1982. On 1st June, 82, two pages crossed by pen continuously by entering there word ‘CLOSED’ and on 3rd page, there are words in bold ‘INCOME/CHARACTER CERTIFICATES REGISTER’. There is no entry of any certificate after that till 1992 in the register except income/character certificates.
Unfortunately, the lawyer did not notice this and could not put suggestion/question in this regard to these 2 witnesses. After appeal, new lawyer noticed all this and raised informally the fact to session judge. Session judge gave idea to ask clarification through RTI Act.
IN RTI info, PIO said that they had record of issuance of ST certificates from 1976 to 1982in the same register and had no record from 82 to 89 and in 1990,91 and 92 issued 120, 135,170 ST certificates as per their record.
False statement of SDM/clerk revealed in this way. Mean time, session judge transferred and we lost again. Now, we are in High court. My questions are:-
- Without putting suggestion/question to witness, can fact of wrong production of record and false statements of SDM/Clerk not prove in court (when it is very clear in register itself)?
- Are question/suggestions must from witnesses to adjudicate the matter?
- How RTI info can be produced in high court as new evidence or how we can take benefit of RTI info?