NAIABHAI RANCHHOD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a reference made by the Sessions Judge. Rajkot in Cri. Revn. Application No. 39/71 of his file wherein he has recommended that the order made by the Court of J. M. F. C. Rajkot in Criminal Case No. 483/70 of his file compelling the accused-petitioner to get himself medically examined in order to determine the age of the defect in the vision of one of his eves should be set aside. The learned Sessions Judge is of the opinion that the Criminal Procedure Code contains no provisions under which an accused person can be ordered to submit to medical examination which is likely to enable the prosecution to obtain incriminating evidence against him.

(2.) IT is an admitted position that the petitioner No. 1, Naiabhai Ranchhod. who is the accused No. 1 before the learned Magistrate, is prosecuted for the offence under Section 419 read with Section 34. I. P. C. on the allegation that with a view to obtain a driving licence from the Regional Transport Office, he requested the accused No. 2. Gandalal Vashram. to appear before the Regional Transport Officer under pretext that he was himself Naiabhai Ranchhod. The allegation of the prosecution is that the petitioner did so as he apprehended that on account of his defective vision, the Regional Transport Officer would not issue a driving licence to him.

(3.) AFTER almost the entire evidence of the prosecution was over, the Public Prosecutor gave an application that since one of the questions involved in the trial was whether petitioner Najabhi Ranchhod was defective in his vision on the day on which he obtained licence, it would be in interest of justice if he was ordered to submit himself to the medical examination with a view to determine the age of the defect in his vision. This application was given by the learned Prosecutor to the trial Court on 21-5-71. The petitioner resisted that application but the learned Magistrate passed an order on 23rd June. 1971 requiring him to produce himself medical examination "to determine the age of the blindness of his one eye. "