Legal Provisions of Section 204 of Indian Penal Code, 1860.
Destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
This section punishes the destruction of a document to prevent its production as evidence. It says that whoever either secretes or destroys any document or electronic record which he may be lawfully compelled to produce as evidence, either in a court of justice or in any proceeding lawfully held before a public servant, as such, or obliterates the whole or any part of such document, or electronic record, or renders illegible the whole or any part of such document, or electronic record, with the intention of preventing that document or electronic record from being either produced or used as evidence before such court or public servant, as the case may be, or after he shall have been lawfully summoned or required to produce that document or electronic record for that purpose, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to two years, or with fine, or with both.
Secreting or destroying of document or electronic record or obliterating or rendering it illegible in whole or in part is necessary to be proved under the section. The accused may be lawfully compelled to produce the document or electronic record as evidence in a court of justice or before a public servant.
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The intention on his part must be to prevent the same from being produced or used as evidence before the court of justice or public servant, or after he shall have been lawfully summoned or required to produce the same for that purpose. Secreting of a document or electronic record is possible both when the existence of the same is unknown to other persons and also when it is known. It is not necessary to prove that the document or electronic record secreted or destroyed was a material evidence.
The offence under this section is non-cognizable, bailable and non-compoundable, and is triable by metropolitan magistrate or magistrate of the first class.