Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

Through: Mr. Narender Mann, Spl. PP for CBI with Mr. Manoj Pant, Ms. Utkarsha Kohli, Advocates.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VED PRAKASH VAISH

1. By way of the present petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as ‗Cr.P.C.') read with Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950, the petitioner has assailed impugned order dated 01.11.2013 passed by learned Special Judge (PC Act), CBI-02, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi in CC No.06/2013 arising out of RC No.AC-1-2008-A0001-ACU-1, New Delhi whereby application under Section 207 Cr.P.C. filed by the petitioner was partly allowed to the extent that documents mentioned in D-37 and the statement of witnesses mentioned at serial No.31 to 36 in the list of witnesses be made available to the petitioner. However, the statement of remaining witnesses Nos.(c) (d) and (g) in para 3 and witnesses (a) to (e) in para 4 of the application of the petitioner and three witnesses mentioned in para 6 of application of accused No.3 (Sanjeev Nanda) were declined.

Provided further that if the Magistrate is satisfied that any document referred to in clause

(v) is voluminous, he shall, instead of furnishing the accused with a copy thereof, direct that he will only be allowed to inspect it either personally or through pleader in Court.

13. On perusal of Section 173 of Cr.P.C. it is manifestly clear that after completion of investigation, the investigating officer shall make a detailed report and the concerned Officer In-Charge of the police station shall forward this report to the Magistrate having jurisdiction to take cognizance. Thereafter, the Magistrate would consider the charge-sheet and the accompanying documents as well as the statements of the witnesses and would decide whether to take cognizance of the offence or not. In terms of Section 207 Cr.P.C. after appearance of the accused, the Magistrate is required to furnish to the accused persons following reports: -

(v) Any other document or relevant extract thereof forwarded to the Magistrate with police report under sub-section (5) of Section 173 of Cr.P.C.

14. A bare reading of provisions contained in Section 207 of Cr.P.C. shows that it is the obligation of the Magistrate to see that all the documents which are necessary for the accused for proper conduct of his defence, are furnished to him well before the trial.

15. A conjoint reading of section 173(5), 173(6) and first proviso attached to Section 207 of Cr.P.C. leaves no scope of doubt that it is the bounden duty of the police officer to forward to the Magistrate all the statements mentioned in sub-section (5)(b) of Section 173 of Cr.P.C. without any exception so as to enable the Magistrate to discharge his duty under Section 207 of Cr.P.C. by furnishing copies of such statements to the accused. In case the police officer considers that the disclosure of any part of such statements would not be expedient in the public interest nor essential in the interest of justice, he is supposed to append a note in his forwarding memorandum to the Magistrate to that effect along with his reasons for withholding such statements or parts thereof from the accused. Wherever any such reservation is made by the police officer, it still lies within the discretion of the Magistrate whether to allow such request or not and it is only in the event where Magistrate agrees with the reasons given by the police officer for not supplying any statement or part thereof to an accused, he may order accordingly while agreeing with the objection raised by the police official.

16. In other words, it is only when specific request has been made by a police officer in his forwarding memorandum of the charge-sheet while being forwarded to the Magistrate stating that any particular statement recorded under Section 161(3) of Cr.P.C. or any document or any part thereof should not be supplied to the accused that the, Magistrate shall on the basis of the discretion conferred upon him, by virtue of first proviso attached to Section 207 of Cr.P.C. after considering the reasons given by the police officer making such request, would either issue directions for furnishing copy of that part of statement or would issue directions for furnishing any relevant portion of that statement thereof to the accused or otherwise. It thus, necessarily follows therefrom that in case where no such specific request has been made by a police officer while forwarding the charge- sheet to the Magistrate then the copies of all the statements recorded under Section 161(3) of Cr.P.C., documents or relevant extract thereof, etc. as provided in clause (i) to (v) of Section 207 of Cr.P.C are required be provided to the accused.