Post-mortem reports and medico legal examination reports are not public documents within the meaning of Section 74 of the Evidence Act and the accused is not entitled to copies of the same during the investigation of the case.

Charanjit Talwar, J. :- The facts, so far as they are relevant for the decision of this petition, are stated in my order of July 29, 1980, by which I had referred the case to a larger Bench. Before analysing the rival contentions, the two questions, which were formulated for consideration, may be noted :

"First - Whether the post-mortem reports and the medico legal examination report are public documents, and,

Second - Whether the accused are entitled to receive copies of the public documents on which the prosecution is relying during investigation of the case."

2. Bawa Gurcharan Singh, learned counsel for the respondent, has fairly conceded before us that the accused would be entitled to copies of those documents during investigation of the case only if the documents are held to be public documents. He, therefore, limited his arguments to the first question. Mr. Dinesh Chand Mathur learned counsel for the petitioner, besides controverting the submission on that question, urged that even if the documents are held to be so, the accused-respondent is not entitled to receive copies of the same till such time a report under S.173 of the Code is filed by the prosecution. He further submitted that in any case the learned Magistrate was incompetent to direct Investigating Agency to supply copies of those documents as he was not the custodian of the original three reports two post mortem reports one medico-legal examination report, which contain the observations as well as the opinion of Dr. Bharat Singh, the police surgeon who performed the autopsy. It is the admitted case of the parties that the original report were forwarded by the police surgeon to the Investigating Officer and they continue to be in his custody. According to Mr. Bawa, the reports of Dr. Bharat Singh squarely fall within the purview of S.74 of the Evidence Act. The postmortem was conducted by Dr. Bharat Singh in his capacity as a public officer and his reports recording his findings or observations are a record of that official act. The documents are thus covered by Cl.(iii) of Sub-Sec. (1) of S.74 which reads as under :-

"74. The following documents are public documents :-

(1) Documents forming the acts, or records of the acts -

(i) of the sovereign authority.

(ii) of official bodies and tribunals, and

(iii) of public officers, legislative, judicial and executive, of any part of India or of the Commonwealth, or of a foreign country;

(2) Public records kept in any State of private documents."

The contention of Mr. Bawa is that the investigation of the case is supervised under the Code by the Magistrate and therefore, the above reports, which are ex facie public documents as par Sec. 74, are within his overall control and custody. He is, therefore, empowered to direct supply of certified copies of the same.

3. To appreciate the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties, the provisions enabling the Investigating Officer to seek post-mortem report may be noticed.

4. Under S.174 of the Code an officer in charge of a police-station or some other police-officer specially empowered by the State Government in that behalf, on receipt of information that a person has died under suspicious circumstances, is duty bound to give intimation of this fact to the nearest Executive Magistrate empowered to hold the inquest, and on reaching the spot he is obliged to draw up a report describing the injuries found on the body. The report, which is to be made in the presence of two or more inhabitants of the neighbourhood, has also given apparent cause of death and the weapon or instrument by which the injuries were caused. This report is to be submitted in a prescribed form as per the provisions of Rule 25.35 of Chap. XXV of the Punjab Police Rules, 1934 (Vol. III).

5. The object of S.174 of the Code is merely to ascertain the cause of death. The inquiry at that stage is to be confined for that purpose. Under Sub-Sec. (3) of S.174 of the Code when there is a doubt as to the