Arjun Panditrao Khotkar vs Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal on 8 December, 2017
18. The evidence of the Medical Officer and the postmortem report
clearly show the severity of the injuries. Though the trial Court has also
relied upon M.O.13-CCTV footage and took it as an evidence, we are of
the view that the trail Court has committed an error in marking the CCTV
footage as M.O.13. It is relevant to note that all electronic records fall
within the definition of the documentary evidence by virtue of the
amendment to the Information Technology Act 21 of 2000. Therefore, the
trial Court ought to have exhibited M.O.13 as document instead of Material
Objects. Be that as it may, the trial Court in fact played the CD and also
relied upon it based on the judgment of this Court reported in 2016-1 L.W.
(Crl) 145. It is relevant to note that the judgment relied upon by the trial
22/30
https://www.mhc.tn.gov.in/judis
Crl.A.(MD)No.103 of 2019
Court also considered by the Apex Court in Arjun Panditrao Khotkar Vs.
Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal and others reported in (2020) 7 SCC 1.
Though the Apex court in the above judgment has held that so long as the
hearing in the trial is not yet over, the requisite certificate can be directed to
be produced by the learned trial Judge at any stage, so that information
contained in electronic record form can then be admitted and relied upon in
evidence, the learned trial Judge has not made any attempt to get the
certificate to make the CCTV footage a legal evidence despite the best
available evidence. However, CD marked as M.O.13. It is also to be noted
that the trial Court has also failed to adhere the procedure in this regard. A
copy of the document sought to be relied upon by the trial Court never part
of the copies under Section 207 Cr.P.C. Therefore, CD marked as M.O.13
is not an admissible evidence in view of the bar contained in Section 65-B
of the Indian Evidence Act. Further the copies also not furnished to the
accused. Therefore, we kept aside M.O.13 and M.O.14 for consideration.
However, we have analyzed only the other materials particularly
eyewitnesses' evidence.