Legal provisions regarding supply to the accused of copy of police report and other under section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that in any case where the proceeding has been instituted on a police report, the Magistrate shall without delay furnish to the accused, free of cost, a copy of each of the following:
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(i) The police report;
(ii) The first information report recorded under Section 154;
(iii) The statements recorded under Section 161(3) of the Code of all persons whom the prosecution proposes to examine as its witnesses, excluding there-from any part in regard to which a request for such exclusion has been made by the police officer under Section 173(6) of the Code;
(iv) The confessions and statements, if any, recorded under Section 164;
(v) Any other document or relevant extracts thereof forwarded to the Magistrate with the police report under Section 173(5) of the Code.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
However, the Magistrate shall, after persuing any such part of a statement and document and if he is satisfied that any such document is voluminous, direct that the accused (or his pleader) will only be allowed to inspect it instead of giving a copy thereof to the accused. Thus, the Magistrate can reject the application for copies if the record is voluminous and allow to inspect.
The object of supply of copies to the accused is to put him on notice of what he has to meet at the time of the inquiry or trial and to prepare himself for his defence.
The provisions of Section 207 of the Code are mandatory. However, the failure to furnish copies of the documents concerned may not necessarily vitiate the trial. Where the accused have been committed to the Court of Sessions without furnishing of copies, the order of committal is not illegal; it is at best an irregularity.
Ordinarily, the rule is that if the defence was not supplied with the copies of the statement of the witnesses examined by police, the testimony of those witnesses should be rejected in toto or the testimony of these witnesses should be received with great caution.