Documents referred to in the charge sheet and deemed to have been relied on by the prosecution should be supplied to the accused, as per Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, regardless of whether the prosecution intends to rely on them during trial.

JUDGMENT

Jay Sengupta, J. - This is an application challenging an order dated 17.03.2022, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court - II, Howrah and all subsequent orders relating thereto in S.T. Case No. 38 of 2021 under Sections 302, 326 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 26 and 27 of the Arms Act whereby an application under Section 207 of the Code was effectively disposed of.

2. It appears from the certified copy of the order dated 23.03.2022, filed subsequently, that the prayer for supply of CCTV footage was finally turned down on that day.

3. Learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted as follows. The petitioner was an accused in this case. The charge sheet was submitted by the investigating agency indicating that the prosecution would rely on a CCTV footage marked as Item No. 4 of Annexure 'A' appended in the charge sheet. However, at the stage of supply of copies, no copy of the said CCTV footage was supplied to the accused. When the matter was taken up before the learned Magistrate, it was submitted on behalf of the prosecution that since the prosecution was not relying on the said CCTV footage anymore, there was no requirement to supply the same.

This was an absolutely misconceived notion. Whether one relied on a copy of such document finally during trial or not, since the same was relied upon in the charge sheet, copies of the same had to be given to the accused.

Reliance was placed on a decision in the case of Sidhartha Vashisht @ Manu Sharma Vs. State (NCT of Delhi) reported in (2010) 6 SCC1 and In Re : Criminal Trial Guidelines relying inadequacy and divorce reported in (2021) 10 SCC 598. In Sidhartha Vshisht @ Manu Sharma(supra) case, the Hon'ble Apex Court gave a wider interpretation to the words contained in Section 207 of the Code. In Re: Criminal Trials Guidelines (supra), it was categorically held that documents seized during investigation and relied upon by the Investigating Officer in accordance with Sections 207 and 208 had to be supplied to the accused along with the statements of witnesses.

Therefore, it was inconsequential whether the learned Public Prosecutor at this stage would rely on such document mentioned in the charge sheet or not.

4. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State submitted as follows. The prosecution was supposed to supply only those documents to the accused which they were going to rely upon during trial. On this reliance was placed on the case of P. Gopalkrishnan vs. State of Kerala reported in (2020) 9 SCC 161. In any event, the prosecution had made it abundantly clear that it would not rely on the CCTV footage in question. Therefore, there was no need to serve a copy of the same upon the State.

5. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the private opposite party submitted as follows. The right to a fair trial of the accused would not be prejudiced if a copy of the CCTV footage was not supplied to him because the prosecution had specifically stated that it would not rely on the same. However, even if a copy of the footage was supplied to the accused, the private opposite party would not have any objection. What was of utmost importance to the private opposite party was that the proceeding commenced at the earliest and was not protracted on some ground or the other.

6. I heard the submissions of the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the parties and perused the revision petition and the written notes.

7. For a better exposition of the question of law raised in this revision, it is necessary to refer to the relevant portions of Sections 173 and 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Sub-sections (5), (6), (7) of Section 173:

'(5) When such report is in respect of a case to which section 170 applies, the police officer shall forward to the Magistrate along with the report -

(a) all documents or relevant extracts thereof on which the prosecution proposes to rely other than those already sent to the Magistrate during inv