JUDGMENT :

Petitioner's application for obtaining a certified copy of the property register, relating to property produced in court was dismissed by the learned Magistrate relying upon Rule 225 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, Kerala 1982 (for short ‘the Rules’). The refusal is assailed in this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

2. Petitioner is the accused in S.C. No.241/2020 of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Thiruvananthapuram. He has been indicted for the offences punishable under Sections 447, 294(b), 323, 324, 308 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. When the above case was posted for trial, petitioner applied to obtain a certified copy of the property register relating to T-582/2011. However, the learned Magistrate by the impugned order dated 05.06.2024, dismissed the said application stating that it is a register kept in the office of the court and it is a non-judicial record as per Rule 225 of the Rules.

3. I have heard Sri. C.S.Manu, the learned counsel for the petitioner and Smt. Sreeja V., the learned Public Prosecutor.

4. Rule 225 reads as follows:

“Copies of non-judicial and confidential papers-Copies of correspondence or of proc