Don't Accept Case Diary Unless IO Certifies That It Is The Complete Original Copy: Allahabad High Court Directs Advocate General

The Bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal has further directed the Addl. Advocate General to communicate the copy of the order to all the Superintendents Of Police for its immediate compliance w.e.f. August 16, 2021.

The Court was hearing the plea of a constable accused under the POCSO Act wherein he claimed that he was at the place of his duty during the commission of the crime.

He relied upon the information received by him under the Right to Information Act, that he was on duty as traffic police personnel (during the relevant time of the incident) and that his duty timings were from 3:00 to 10:00 pm at Ghaziabad and he was dispatched for duty at 2:00 pm.

However, the advocate for the private respondent, on the other hand, argued that as per the probe of the Investigating Officer, the location of the mobile number carried by the accused was found close to the place of the incident.

However, when the Government Advocate was asked to supply a copy of the Purcha No. SCD-02 enclosed with the case diary (in which the presence of the accused near the place of the incident was claimed), it was submitted that the complete case diary had not been sent to the office of Advocate General.

In this backdrop, the Addl. Advocate General was requested by the Court to look into the matter and the Court directed thus:

"…the office of Advocate General shall not accept any case diary unless a certificate is appended by the Investigating Officer of the case that he is producing a complete original or true copy of the case diary containing pages from 1 to ....along with an Index of the documents which form part of the case diary, and in case it is found that incomplete case diary is accepted without the endorsement of the I.O. causing inconvenience to the court and wastage of precious time then the office of Advocate General may be held responsible and consequences may follow"