Supply of copies u/s. 207 Cr.P.C
Tapas Mukhopadhyay
(Querist) 15 March 2010
This query is : Resolved
There is two investigation in first final report tendered as mistake of fact and in second filed charge sheet. question whether the accused has a right to get all the relevant copies of both investigation ? Is there any Suprement Court judgement in that regard ? and when the matter of non supplying copies of both investigation is to be agitated before the Court.
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 15 March 2010
No supreme court decision is required as the section 173 of CrPC itself provides for supply of copy of the Charge sheet along with its relevant copies to each of the accused persons at free of cost. Supply of such copies touches the very essence od natural justice and hence can always be successfully agitated before the Magistrate itself.
Sanjeev Panda
(Expert) 16 March 2010
I agree with DB. The Cr.P.C. is complete code in itself and if you go through the wordings of Section 173 r/w 207 Cr.P.C. as pointed out by Mr. Barman, you will find that it is a mandatory provision. The documents cannot be denied to an accused, it is his most fundamental right to defend himself. Even the court cannot deny the documents forwarded to it by the prosecution along with the chargesheet and it can be denied only in case (See Section 173(5) read with Section 207(v)Cr.P.C.) only on an extremely limited ground that the documents are voluminous in which case the accused will only be allowed inspection either personally or through the lawyer. There is no other ground on which the documents relied upon by the prosecution can be denied. Further, the statements recorded u/s 161 Cr.P.C. can be withheld from disclosure, if the IO makes a request that it is not in interest of justice etc.
Tapas Mukhopadhyay
(Querist) 16 March 2010
It is known to me but section 207 Cr.P.C says about police reports,FIR, 161 & 164 Cr.P.C statements and the documents forwarded to the magistrate u/s. 173(5) Cr.P.C whereas in section 173(5)(a) says all documents or relevant extracts thereof on which the prosecution proposes to rely other than those already sent to the magistrate during investigation now question is if there are documents in which prosecution does not rely but those are essential for the defence of a criminal trial whether is it mandatory for prosecution to supply those documents to the accused whereas it was categorically stated earlier that there are two investigations in one investigation final report was submitted as mistake of fact and in the second charge sheet has been filed
