ORDER

1. During the course of hearing of Criminal Appeal No.400/2006 and connected matters, Mr. R. Basant, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellants-complainant, pointed out certain common inadequacies and deficiencies in the course of trial adopted by the trial court while disposing of criminal cases. In particular, it was pointed out that though there are beneficial provisions in the Rules of some of the High Courts which ensure that certain documents such as list of witnesses and the list of exhibits/material objects referred to, are annexed to the judgment and order itself of the trial court, these features do not exist in Rules of some other High Courts. Undoubtedly, the judgments and orders of the trial court which have such lists annexed, can be appreciated much better by the appellate courts.

2. Certain other matters were also pointed out by Mr. Basant, learned Senior Counsel for the appellants-complainant, during the course of arguments. He made the following submissions :

A. In the course of discussions at the Bar while considering this case, this Court had generally adverted to certain common inadequacies and imperfections that occur in the criminal trials in our country. I venture to suggest that in the interests of better administration of criminal justice and to usher in a certain amount of uniformity, and acceptance of best practices prevailing over various parts of India, this Court may consider issue of certain general guidelines to be followed across the board by all Criminal Courts in the country.

B. The following areas may be considered specifically:

1. The pernicious practice of the Trial Judge leaving the recording of deposition to the clerk concerned and recording of evidence going on in more than one case in the same Court room, at the same time, under the presence and general supervision of the presiding officer has to be disapproved strongly and discontinued forthwith. A visit to Delhi Trial Courts any day will reveal this sad state of affairs, I am given to understand.

2. The depositions of witnesses must be recorded, in typed format, using computers, in Court, to the dictation of the presiding officers (in English wherever possible) so that readable true copies will be available straightaway and can be issued to both sides on the date of examination itself.

3. The deposition of each witness must be recorded dividing it into separate paragraphs assigning para numbers to facilitate easy reference to specific portions later in the course of arguments and in Judgments.

4. Witnesses/documents/material objects be assigned specific nomenclature and numbers like PWs/DWs/CWs (1 onwards); Ext. P/Ext. D/Ext. C (1 onwards); MOs (1 onwards) etc., so that reference later becomes easy and less time-consuming. Kindly see the Relevant Rules Kerala Criminal Rules of Practice 1982 “Rule 62 – Marking of exhibits.-

(1) Exhibits admitted in evidence shall be marked as follows:

(i) If filed by the prosecution, with capital letter P followed by a numeral P1, P2, P3 etc

(ii) If filed by defence, with capital letter D followed by a numeral D1, D2, D3 etc

(iii) If Court exhibits, with capital letter C followed by a numeral C1, C2, C3 etc.

(2) All exhibits marked by several accused shall be marked consecutively.

(3) All material objects shall be marked in Arabic numbers in continuous series, whether exhibited for the prosecution or the defence or the Court as M.O.1, M.O.2, M.O.3, etc”

Andhra Pradesh Criminal rules of Practice and Circular Orders, 1990

“Rule 66 – How witness shall be referred to Witnesses shall be referred by their names or ranks as P.W.s., or D.Ws., and if the witnesses are not examined, but cited in the chargesheet, they should be referred by their names and not by numbers allotted to them in the charge-sheet.”

5. Every judgment must mandatorily have a preface showing the name of the parties and an appendix