EMPEROR Vs. DHONDIBA SANTOO SHINDE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case a question of procedure has been raised by Mr. Taleyarkhan, who appears on behalf of the Crown, and it is, whether the prosecution is bound to supply the defence with a copy of the statement of a witness who has not been examined before the committing Magistrate and whom the prosecution propose to examine for the first time in the Sessions Court. The Clerk of the Crown has also requested me to give a considered ruling on the point.

(2.) I do not think it will be disputed that the prosecution can examine witnesses in the Sessions Court, who were not previously examined before the committing Magistrate. There is nothing in the Criminal Procedure Code which in terms would prevent them from doing so. Apart from the question which I have now to determine, there is one principle which I should like to stress and that is, that when the prosecution proposes to examine new witnesses, the prosecuting counsel should always mention in his opening address the names of the new witnesses and the purpose for which they are being called, and the Court should always insist upon this being done.

(3.) The practice in sessions cases is that the committing Magistrate sends four copies of the depositions of witnesses examined before him in the course of the preliminary inquiry. Of these, one is reserved for the Judge; one is sent to the Public Prosecutor; one is sent to the Translator's Department for the use of the Court Interpreters; and the fourth is reserved for the accused, if applied for. When the accused person applies for a copy, it is given to him on his paying the prescribed charge; but the Clerk of the Crown has a discretion in the matter, and in proper cases, as, for instance, where the accused is poor, he gives a copy free of any charge. Similarly, he also supplies a free copy to the counsel who is engaged by the Crown to defend an accused person on a charge of murder.