Allahabad High Court
Swami Chinmayanand Alias Krishna Pal ... vs State Of U.P. on 7 November, 2019
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 65 Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 39538 of 2019 Applicant :- Swami Chinmayanand Alias Krishna Pal Singh Opposite Party :- State of U.P. Counsel for Applicant :- Rajrshi Gupta,Manish Singh Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A. Hon'ble Dinesh Kumar Singh-I,J.
Heard Sri Manish Singh, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri G.P. Singh, learned A.G.A. for the State.
The present application has been filed with a prayer to quash the order dated 19.09.2019 by which the prayer for grant of copy of statement made under Section 164 Cr.P.C. by the girl before the Magistrate, was rejected by Additional District and Session Judge, In-charge, Copying Saharanpur.
Learned A.G.A. had sought time to seek instructions for taking up the matter. Now he has received the instructions. He has stated that a copy of the statement of victim recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. ought to have been given to accused-applicant. Impugned order has been erroneously passed by the trial court by which it had refused to provide a copy of the statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. to the accused-applicant.
Yesterday, arguments at length were heard of the learned Sr. Counsel Dilip Kumar, assisted by Sri Manish Singh, learned counsel for the applicant. Learned counsel for the applicant has drawn attention of this Court in the case of Raju Vs. State of U.P. and others, 2012 LawSuit (All) 723. Relevant paragraphs of the said judgment are as follows:-
"(1) We had by our order dated 3.4.2012 directed the petition to be listed before us for deciding the issue as to whether an accused or a victim of an offence was entitled to a copy of the statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. by a judicial Magistrate, if an application is duly made and the court fee which is required for obtaining such a copy of such statement is paid by the desirous person.
12. For the forgoing reasons, what we find that no person, who is entitled to a copy of the statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C., could be denied the required copy of the said document, if he is ready to pay the cost admissible under Rules of the Court. The issue framed by us, is accordingly, answered."
Learned counsel for the applicant has further drawn attention of this Court in the case of State of Karnataka by Nonavinakere Police Vs. Shivanya @ Tarkari Shivanya, 2014 LawSuit (SC) 374. Relevant paragraph of the said judgment is as follows:-
"9. On considering the same, we have accepted the suggestion offered by the learned counsel who appeared before us and hence exercising powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, we are pleased to issue interim directions in the form of mandamus to all the police station in charge in the entire country to follow the direction of this Court which are as follows:
(i) Upon receipt of information relating to the commission of offence of rape, the Investigating Officer shall make immediate steps to take the victim to any Metropolitan/preferably Judicial Magistrate for the purpose of recording her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. A copy of the statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. should be handed over to the Investigating Officer immediately with a specific direction that the contents of such statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. Section Cr.P.C. should not be disclosed to any person till charge sheet/report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. is filed.
(ii) The Investigating Officer shall as far as possible take the victim to the nearest Lady Metropolitan/preferably Lady Judicial Magistrate.
(iii) The Investigating Officer shall record specifically the date and the time at which he learnt about the commission of the offence of rape and the date and time at which he took the victim to the Metropolitan/preferably Lady Judicial Magistrate as aforesaid.
(iv) If there is any delay exceeding 24 hours in taking the victim to the Magistrate, the Investigating Officer should record the reasons for the same in the case diary and hand over a copy of the same to the Magistrate.
(v) Medical Examination of the victim:Section 164 A Cr.P.C. inserted by Act 25 of 2005 in Cr.P.C. imposes an obligation on the part of Investigating Officer to get the victim of the rape immediately medically examined. A copy of the report of such medical examination should be immediately handed over to the Magistrate who records the statement of the victim under Section 164 Cr.P.C."
It was argued by the learned counsel for the applicant that the said directions were issued only for the police to be followed and not to the Court. I agree with with the said argument and I am of the opinion that correct law has been laid down by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Raju (supra), in view of that it was bounden duty of the trial court to provide a certified copy of the statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C. to the applicant subject to payment of usual charges.
Accordingly, the impugned order is set aside and it is directed that trial court shall provide a certified copy of the statement of victim recorded under Section 164 Cr.PC. to the applicant subject to payment of usual charges.
Order Date :- 7.11.2019 A.P. Pandey