1. By way of this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India the petitioner has prayed for appropriate directions/orders directing 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 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Cr.P.C’) in furtherance of the rationale as established by this Court in Youth Bar Association of India v. Union of India, (2016) 9 SCC 473 on their websites.
xxx
4.2 Even the relief which is sought in the present writ petition directing that all the challans/chargesheets filed under Section 173 Cr.P.C. shall be put on public domain/websites of the State Governments shall be contrary to the Scheme of the Criminal Procedure Code. As per Section 207 Cr.P.C. a duty is cast upon the Investigating Officer to supply to the accused the copy of the police report and other documents including the First Information Report recorded under Section 154 Cr.P.C. and the statements recorded under sub-Section 3 of Section 161 Cr.P.C.
xxx
4.5 Therefore on 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 in the present petition 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.
5. Now so far as the reliance placed upon on Sections 74 & 76 of the Evidence Act is concerned, the reliance placed upon the said provisions are also absolutely misconceived and misplaced. Documents mentioned in Section 74 of the Evidence Act only can be said to be public documents, the certified copies of which are to be given by the concerned police officer having the custody of such a public document. Copy of the chargesheet along with the necessary documents cannot be said to be public documents within the definition of Public Documents as per Section 74 of the Evidence Act. As per Section 75 of the Evidence Act all other documents other than the documents mentioned in Section 74 of the Evidence Act are all private documents. Therefore, 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.
6. Now so far as the reliance placed upon Section 4 of the RTI Act is concerned, under Section 4(2) of the RTI Act a duty is cast upon the public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of sub- Section 1 of Section 4 of the RTI Act to provide as much information suo moto to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications. 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. Under the circumstances also the reliance placed upon Section 4(1)(2) of the RTI Act is also misconceived and misplaced.
7. In view of the above and for the reason stated above, the petitioner is not entitled to the relief as prayed in the present petition namely directing all the States to put on their websites the copies of all the chargesheets/challans filed under Section 173 of the Cr.P.C.
Party
Saurav Das vs Union Of India & Ors – Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1126 Of 2022 – January. 20.2023
Saurav Das vs. U.O.I 39129_2022_4_1518_41177_Judgement_20-Jan-2023
