Legal provisions regarding Destruction of document to prevent its production as evidence under section 204 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Destruction of document to prevent its production as evidence:
“Whoever secrets or destroys any document or electronic record] which he may be lawfully compelled to produce as evidence in a Court of Justice, or in any proceeding lawfully, held before a public servant, as such, or obliterates or renders illegible the whole or any part of such document or electronic record with the intention of preventing the same from being produced or used as evidence before such Court or public servant as aforesaid or after he shall have been lawfully summoned or required to produce the same for that purpose, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
Section 204 deals with destruction of documents either by completely destroying it, or by blotting out, erasing or defacing certain portions of the document or the entire document with the intention that it be prevented from being produced or being used as evidence in any court or before any public servant. Such destruction may have been carried out either prior to if being summoned to be produced in court or after the person was lawfully required to produce the document in Court.
To constitute an offence under Section 204, the act must be done with the intention of preventing the document from being produced or used as evidence.
The offence under Section 204 is an aggravated form of the offence punishable under Section 175 which deals with omission to produce or deliver up any document to any public servant. Section 204 has its application in the proceedings of both civil and criminal nature.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The points requiring proof under Section 204 are:
1. The accused secreted or destroyed, or obliterated or rendered illegible the whole or any part of a document;
2. The document was such as he may be lawfully compelled to produce as evidence in a court of justice, or in any proceeding lawfully held before a public servant;
3. In doing so, his intention was to prevent the document from being produced or used as evidence, or he did so after he had been lawfully summoned or required to produce the document to be used as evidence.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The offence under Section 204 is non-cognizable, but warrant may ordinarily issue in the first instance. It is bailable but not compoundable and is triable by a Magistrate of the first class.