Madras HC to decide if police should immediately receive copies of Witness Statements

The First Bench of the Madras High Court this week reserved its order on whether police authorities should be entitled to get immediate access to copies of witness statements recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC and other documents..The issue was originally raised in a hearing for grant of bail before Justice N Prakash on July 7. The case for consideration pertained to a bail application of a person accused of having sexually molested students studying in an institution he was Gounder and Chairman of..While the original bail application was withdrawn, the Court took note of the submission made by Additional Public Prosecutor C Emalias that the investigation in the case lagged for difficulty of the police to get access to witness statements and other relevant documents..“… during the course of arguments, this Court observed that the police were not furnished with the statements of the victim girls that were recorded under Section 164, Cr.P.C. by the Magistrate. Very often, this Court has come across an issue of this sort..…learned Additional Public Prosecutor submitted that the police are made to run from pillar to post for receiving the copies of such statements of witnesses as well of the accused, dying declaration and test identification parade report, on account of which, investigation gets unduly delayed…”.The Court noted that these concerns warranted remedial measures. In this context, the following questions were posed:.“Are the police entitled to be furnished with copies of the following documents immediately?.statement of witness recorded under Section 164, Cr.P.C.;Confession statement of the accused recorded under Section 164, Cr.P.C.;Dying declaration recorded by the Magistrate; andTest Identification Parade report of the Magistrate.”.Justice Prakash thereafter directed that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice so that it could be referred to a Division Bench for authoritative pronouncement..On Tuesday, the matter was placed before a Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice N Prakash, which reserved its order..Read a copy of the July 7 order below: