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D. Y. CHANDRACHUD, A. S. BOPANNA
Varsha Garg – Appellant
Versus
State of Madhya Pradesh – Respondent
Key Points: - The Court holds that Section 311 Cr.P.C. powers are broad and can be exercised at any stage to summon or recall witnesses if essential to the just decision of the case. (!) (!) (!) - Section 91 Cr.P.C. empowers courts to issue summons to produce documents or things when necessary or desirable for investigation, trial, or other proceedings; decoding registers are treated as relevant evidence to establish location vs. cell tower linkage. (!) (!) - The decoding registers and related call data records were deemed crucial and not to be obstructed; the Court allowed the prosecution’s applications for production of decoding registers and summoning cellular-company witnesses. (!) (!) - The decision reiterates that the right to a fair trial under Article 21 can be protected by allowing the prosecution to correct errors or fill lacunae in the evidence. (!) (!) - The Court emphasizes that the scope of Section 311 is to discover truth and aid justice, not to retrial or prejudice the accused; it cites Zahira Habibullah Sheikh and Mohanlal Shamji Soni for this principle. (!) (!) (!) - The High Court’s earlier dismissal on grounds that decoding registers were not part of case diary, or that evidence was closed, was set aside; the trial court is directed to conclude Sessions Trial No. 227 of 2016 by 31 October 2022. (!) (!) - Interim bail extension for Mangilal Thakur granted due to medical condition up to 31 October 2022. (!)
JUDGMENT :
DHANANJAYA Y. CHANDRACHUD, J.
1. A Single Judge of the Indore Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh rejected, by a judgment dated 8 April 2022, a petition instituted by the appellant under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 19731 [Cr.P.C.] registered as Misc. Criminal Case No. 57152 of 2021.
2. The petition addressed a challenge to the correctness of an order dated 13 November 2021 of the Second Additional Sessions Judge, Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, District Indore rejecting an application under Section 311 Cr.P.C. seeking to summon the nodal officers of certain cellular entities along with the decoding register to trace the mobile location of accused Vikas, Mangilal and Suresh.
3. The appellant is the spouse of an advocate who was brutally murdered outside his office at about 2330 hrs on 18 November 2015. Following the homicide, a First Information Report bearing Criminal Complaint No. 734 of 2015 was registered with Police Station2 [“P.S.”] Mhow, District Indore on 19 November 2015 for an offence punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code 18603 [“IPC”]. The investigation was initiated. The post mortem report indicated that the homicid
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