STATE Vs. GHULAM MOHIUDDIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by the Sessions Judge, Mirzapur, Under section 438, Criminal P. C. The facts leading to the reference are few and simple: Ghulam Mohiuddin is being prosecuted for an offence punishable under Section 188, Penal Code. When he appeared before the City Magistrate of Mirzapur for trial, he made an application to the Court alleging that the prosecution witnesses had not seen him and would not be able to identify him, and praying that, before recording their evidence, steps may be taken for his identification by the witnesses. The learned Magistrate passed the following order on the application:

(2.) Against this order, Ghulam Mohiuddin filed a revision in the Court of the Sessions Judge. The learned Judge has, in the order of reference, stated:

(3.) At an identification parade, the witnesse, who claim to have seen or recognised an ,accused person in the act of committing a crime, are called upon to identify the accused when he stands in the midst of a number of other persons. It is presumed that the witnesses did not know him from before and had No occasion to see him between the date of the commission of the crime and the date when they are called upon to identify him. The main object of holding the parade is to test the memory of the witnesses based upon first impressions and also to enable the prosecution to decide whether all or any of them could be cited as eye-witnesses of the crime. The test is usually adopted during the investigation of a crime by the police, when the witnesses are interrogated for the first time and state that they had seen some persons committing the crime but do not know their names and would be able to identify them if they could see them again. In such cases, as a rule, the Investigating Officer submits a report to the proper authority for the holding of an identification parade; and if the Investigating Officer omits to do so, the accused may, if so advised, point out the omission but he has no right to demand that an identification parade must be held. The omission will certainly entitle the accused to challenge the veracity of the witnesses on that ground at the trial.