Section 207 CrPC: Magistrate Cannot Withhold Any Document Submitted Along With Police Report Except When It Is Voluminous: SC [Read Judgment]

The Supreme Court has observed that a Magistrate cannot withhold any "document" submitted by the investigating officer along with the police report except when it is voluminous.

Further, in case of voluminous documents, the accused can be permitted to take inspection of the concerned document either personally or through his pleader in Court, the bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari held in P. Gopalkrishnan @ Dileep vs. State of Kerala.

The bench was considering Kerala film actor Dileep's plea for handing over copy of the visuals of the alleged sexual crime committed on a Kerala actress in February 2017. The court held that the contents of a memory card in relation to a crime amount to a 'document' and not a 'material object'.

In the judgment, the Court examined the scope of Section 207 of the Criminal Procedure Code which deals with supply to the accused of copy of police report and other documents. The Magistrate's duty under Section 207 at this stage is in the nature of administrative work, whereby he is required to ensure full compliance of the Section, the bench said. It noted that, as regards the statements, the first proviso enables the Magistrate to withhold any part thereof referred to in clause (iii), from the accused on being satisfied with the note and the reasons specified by the investigating officer as predicated in sub-Section (6) of Section 173. But with regard to furnishing of documents submitted by the investigating officer along with police report, the Magistrate can withhold only such document referred to in clause (v), which in his opinion, is "voluminous". The court observed:

In that case, the accused can be permitted to take inspection of the concerned document either personally or through his pleader in Court. In other words, Section 207 of the 1973 Code does not empower the Magistrate to withhold any "document" submitted by the investigating officer along with the police report except when it is voluminous. A fortiori, it necessarily follows that even if the investigating officer appends his note in respect of any particular document, that will be of no avail as his power is limited to do so only in respect of 'statements' referred to in sub-Section (6) of Section 173 of the 1973 Code.

In the instant case, though the court held that contents of memory card is to be considered as a document, it observed that in cases involving issues such as of privacy of the complainant/witness or his/her identity, the Court may be justified in providing only inspection thereof to the accused and his/her lawyer or expert for presenting effective defence during the trial. 

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