Chief Examination & Cross-Examination Of Witness Must Be Recorded On The Same Day Or Following Day : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has reiterated that the chief examination and cross-examination of a witness must be recorded on the same day or the following day. There should be no ground for adjournment in recording the examination-in-chief/cross-examination of the witnesses.

A bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar made these observations while considering a special leave petition challenging an order granting bail to an accused in a murder case. The petitioner informed the Court that the examination of prosecution witness was getting adjourned despite the mandate under Section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Taking note of this situation, the bench observed :

"The mandate of law itself postulate that examination-in-chief followed with cross-examination is to be recorded either on the same day or on the day following. In other words, there should not be any ground for adjournment in recording the examination-in-chief/cross-examination of the prosecution witness, as the case may be".

The bench noted that this dictum was stated in the case Vinod Kumar versus State of Punjab (2015) 3 SCC 220. The bench directed the trial court to expedite the trial, taking note of Section 309 CrPC and the case law precedent, and further directed that examination-in-chief/cross-examination is to be recorded either on the same day or on the day following but no long adjournment should be granted while recording the statement of prosecution witnesses.

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Case Title : Mukesh Singh versus State of Uttar Pradesh

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 826

Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 - Section 309 - Examination-in-chief followed with cross-examination is to be recorded either on the same day or on the day following. In other words, there should not be any ground for adjournment in recording the examination-in-chief/cross-examination of the prosecution witness, as the case may be- Referred Vinod Kumar versus State of Punjab (2015) 3 SCC 220.

 Click here to read/download the order