Applicability Of S.207 CrPC Limited To Only Supplying Documents To Accused Which Are 'Relied Upon' By Prosecution: Punjab & Haryana High Court

While rejecting the plea to supply documents to an accused including the police diary in the Sippy Sidhu murder case, the Punjab & Haryana High Court said that the applicability of the provisions of section 207 Cr.P.C. is limited to supplying the accused with documents and materials only 'relied upon' by the prosecution.

According to Section 207 Cr.P.C, when the proceeding has been instituted on a police report, the Magistrate shall without delay furnish to the accused, free of post, a copy of documents including the police report, FIR recorded under section 154, the statements recorded under sub-section (3) of section 161 of all persons whom the prosecution proposes to examine as its witnesses.

Kalyani Singh a daughter of former High Court judge is accused for murdering Sippy Siddhu, a lawyer and national-level shooter. It is alleged that Kalyani murdered Sidhu after her marriage proposal was turned down.

Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul said, “It is imperative to underscore that the prayer for unfettered right to inspect case diary entries based solely on an unsubstantiated apprehension that the family of the deceased/mother of the deceased, has been provided such access by the police or the Court is untenable and goes against settled ratio of law."

The Court said that "granting such broad access could potentially compromise public interest, especially when sensitive information like the identity of the informants is recorded in the case diary. Allowing unrestricted access to such information could endanger the safety of informants and also discourage cooperation with law enforcement agencies."

Singh filed a plea under Section 482 CrPC, seeking the quashing of the order passed by the Court of Special Judge, CBI, Chandigarh vide which her application under Section 207 of the Cr.P.C. was dismissed.

The senior counsel for Singh contended that CBI has relied on seizure memo in both its reports filed under Section 173(2) and 173(8) of the Cr.P.C. Despite this, the CBI is now claiming that certain documents which form part of the seizure memo, are 'unrelied upon' documents since they are not a part of the challan.

After hearing the submissions, the Court observed that "Section 207 of the Cr.P.C. stands as a cornerstone in safeguarding the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial. It ensures that the accused is informed of, and supplied all material, 'relied upon', by the prosecution, so as to prevent any surprise introduction of crucial evidence during trial that could deprive him or her of an opportunity to mount an effective defence."

The Court made it clear that the failure to comply with the provisions of Section 207 Cr.P.C. would severely prejudice and be detrimental to the accused, potentially vitiating the entire trial.

It referred to 'In Re: To Issue Certain Guidelines Regarding Inadequacies And Deficiencies In Criminal Trials vs. The State Of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.' 2021 (10) SCC 598, wherein the Supreme Court did acknowledge situations where an accused could be caught unawares of other potentially exculpatory material in the possession of the prosecution.

The Magistrate should also ensure that a list of seized but 'unrelied upon' materials be also provided to the accused, but, the accused could only seek those 'unrelied upon' documents under Section 91 of the Cr.P.C., and that too only at an appropriate stage, during the trial, however they cannot be furnished to the accused under Section 207 Cr.P.C. at this stage of the trial, it added.

The Court noted that the Supreme Court, in February 2024, ordered the CBI to supply all materials to the petitioner- accused that had been supplied to the mother of the deceased.

Justice Kaul pointed out that the Public Prosecutor for the CBI, during the course of arguments before High Court has made an unequivocal and categoric statement that in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court, "the petitioner had already been furnished with all the materials 'relied upon' by the prosecution, along with a list of 'unrelied documents', and also all the documents which had been supplied to the family of the deceased."

The Court said that the documents sought by the petitioner were not mentioned even in the list of documents and articles 'relied upon' by the CBI in the charge sheet as well as the 'untrace report' filed by it, lending credence to the submissions that these documents had not been relied upon by the prosecution.

With respect to the prayer made by the senior counsel for the petitioner for the supply of case diaries/police files maintained by the Chandigarh Police during the initial stages of the investigation, the Court said that in light of the statutory disentitlement provided in Section 172(3) of the Cr.P.C. the said prayer was untenable at the present stage.

"Although an accused may, under certain circumstances, have the right to peruse prior statements recorded in a police officer's diary under Section 145 or 161 of the Evidence Act, however, this right is hindered by the constraints imposed by Section 172(3) of the Cr.P.C., and cannot thus be availed of, by the accused at this initial stage, under Section 207 of the Cr.P.C," added the bench.

Consequently, the plea was dismissed.

R.S. Cheema, Senior Advocate with S.S. Narula, Siddarth Bhukkal, Satish Sharma, Harish Mehla, Prabhat Gupta, Advocates for the petitioner.

Ravi Kamal Gupta, Spl. Public Prosecutor CBI for the respondent/CBI.

Amarjeet, Advocate for the complainant.

Title: Kalyani Singh v. CBI, Chandigarh

Citation'; 2024 LiveLaw (PH) 135

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