The main legal point established in the judgment is that the accused has the right to obtain copies of all witness statements, including dying declarations, recorded during the investigation, even if the prosecution does not rely on them, to ensure a fair trial and effective defense.

JUDGMENT - V.S. SIRPURKAR, J. :---By this application under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the applicant-accused challenges the order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Wardha, rejecting his application for directing the prosecution to produce the dying declarations of deceased and also for supply of the statements of witnesses recorded by the police prior to 17-2-1990.

2. Shortly stated the facts are that the applicant-accused is facing a trial before the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Wardha, for the offences under sections 498 and 306 of the Indian Penal Code, on the allegation that on 27-1-1990, Chanda, his wife, set herself on fire, after sprinkling kerosene on her person with an intention to commit suicide and, ultimately, she succumbed to her burn-injuries on 30-1-1990. It is the case of the prosecution that Chanda was driven to commit suicide because of the extreme cruel treatment given by the applicant-accused and also because of his unreasoned demand of money from her parents. Thus, the prosecution alleged abetment of suicide against the applicant-accused.

3. The investigation of the said crime was completed and there is an allegation that during the said investigation Chanda gave three dying declarations. It is also suggested by the applicant-accused that the statements of as many as eight witnesses were taken, but those statements were not supplied to him. On these allegations, the applicant-accused filed an application before the learned Additional Sessions Judge, being Application Exhibit-11. In this, there is a clearcut assertion made by the Counsel for the applicant-accused that the dying declaration of deceased Chanda was recorded thrice and the statements of as many as eight witnesses, whose names were given, were also recorded, and yet all these documents were never supplied with the charge-sheet. The defence urged in this application that these documents were necessary for the purpose of cross-examining the witnesses and, therefore, in the interest of justice and fair trial, the same should be supplied to the defence.

4. The learned Public Prosecutor opposed this application. He made on the application the following endorsement :

"The prosecution does not rely on the documents mentioned in this application. As such the accused cannot insist on production of the same."

On this, the learned Additional Sessions Judge rightly directed to hand over the copies of the statements of witnesses who were going to be examined by the prosecution. However, as far as the dying declarations were concerned, the trial Court held that there was no record at that stage before the Court and the A.P.P. also was not in a position to state anything about the same and, therefore, there was no question of production of dying declarations at that stage, if the prosecution was not relying on the same. The trial Court ordered the case to proceed. It is this order, which is in challenge before this Court in the present criminal application.

5. Shri Choudhary, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the applicant-accused, submitted that it was the right of the accused to get the copies of the statements of witnesses recorded by the prosecution during the investigation, who were proposed to be examined by the prosecution. He pointed out the positive language of section 207 and also section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and contended that if during investigation, some statements were recorded of the proposed witnesses, the accused was entitled as of right to have the copies thereof, particularly to use the same in the cross-examination. We need not go into this as the trial Court has directed the said statements to be supplied. If the named witnesses in the application figured in the charge-sheet as the prosecution witnesses, their statements are bound to be supplied. Even in addition to them, if the prosecution wanted to examine some other witnesses who do not figure in the list, the statements of such persons w

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