Brief Facts
- The present petition has been filed as Public Interest Litigation under Article 32 to seek appropriate directions/orders directing the all the Respondents-States to enable free public access to chargesheets and final reports filed as per Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 on their website.
Issues
- Whether the chargesheet, once filed in the court, is a public document for the purpose of section 74 of the Evidence Act?
- Whether the Chargesheets and Police reports covered under Section 4(1)(b) of the Right to Information Act?
Held
- Conjoint reading of Section 173 Cr. P.C. and Section 207 Cr. P.C. the Investigating Agency is required to furnish the copies of the report along with the relevant documents to be relied upon by the prosecution to the accused and to none others. Therefore, if the relief as prayed is allowed and all the chargesheets and relevant documents produced along with the chargesheets are put on the public domain or on the websites of the State Governments it will be contrary to the Scheme of the Criminal Procedure Code and it may as such violate the rights of the accused as well as the victim and/or even the investigating agency. Putting the FIR on the website cannot be equated with putting the chargesheets along with the relevant documents on the public domain and on the websites of the State Governments.
- The chargesheet/documents along with the chargesheet cannot be said to be public documents under Section 74 of the Evidence Act, reliance placed upon Sections 74 & 76 of the Evidence Act is absolutely misplaced.
- Copies of the chargesheet and the relevant documents along with the charge-sheet do not fall within Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act.
Relevant Para No.
- 4.5 , 5, 6