Section 293 of the Code of Criminal Procedure renders admissible the report of the Chemical Examiner as a whole including the averments with regard to the condition of the sample and the seals thereon and the manner of its receipt.

S.S.SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. That every official in the office of the Chemical Examiner (or in the alternative at least some of them), in whose custody at any stage the sample had remained, must necessarily step into the witness box to depose about its safe transmission, is the rather hypertechnical stand taken on behalf of the petitioners which has necessitated this reference to the Division Bench. An inevitable corollary thereof is whether Section 293 of the Code of Criminal Procedure renders admissible the averments in the report of the Chemical Examiner with regard to the condition of such a sample and the manner of its receipt.

2. For the adjudication of the aforesaid pristinely legal questions it seems unnecessary to advert to the facts of any one of this set of 16 connected criminal revisions before us. It suffices to mention that when some of them came up before my learned brother I.S. Tiwana, J. sitting singly, reliance was placed on three single Bench judgements of this Court in Amarjit Singh V/s. State of Punjab, 1981 Chand Cri C 170 (P and H); Criminal Revn. No. 219 of 1979 (Tehal Singh V/s. State of Punjab) decided on November 20, 1980* and Criminal Revn. No. 304 of 1979 (Gurcharan Singh V/s. State of Punjab) decided on Feb. 5, 1981; for contending that because everyone of the persons in the Office of the Chemical Examiner, and in any case some of them, who had kept the samples in the safe custody, had not been examined as witnesses, (or by producing their affidavits) the vital link evidence was missing, thus vitiating the whole prosecution case. Apparently, not accepting so doctrinaire a stand and doubting the correctness of the ratio of the aforesaid judgements, the matter was referred for consideration by a larger Bench vide the order of reference dated 28th Sept. 1981 in Criminal Revn. No. 1043 of 1981 (Mohinder Kumar V/s. State of Punjab). * Reported in (1981) 8 Cri LT 58 (Punj and Har.)

3. As before the single Bench so before us, the learned counsel relied upon the authorities aforesaid buttressed by similar views expressed in Atma Singh V/s. State of Punjab, 1981 Chand Cri C 181 (PandH); and Bishno V/s. State of Punjab, 1981 Chand Cri C 243 : (1982 Cri LJ NOC 22) (PandH); to reiterate their stand that the non-production of witnesses from the office of the Chemical Examiner, who may have handled the sample till it reached the hands of the person analysing the same, vitiates the whole prosecution case in its entirely. The cornerstone of the contention was ultimately sought to be rested on the observations of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in State of Rajasthan V/s. Daulat Ram, AIR 1980 SC 1314 : (1980 Cri LJ 929) :-

4. To appreciate the rival contentions, the issue deserves consideration in the context of the statutory provisions against the backdrop of their legislative history. It deserves recalling that the predecessor Sec. 510 of the old Cr. P.C. 1898 had rendered admissible the reports of the Chemical Examiner in evidence. The successor provision in the new Cri. P.C. 1973 is Section 293 thereof. It seems apt at the very outset to juxtapose the relevant provisions thereof :-

Section 510 of the old Code of Criminal Procedure. Sec. 293 of the new Code of Criminal Procedure.

(1) Any document purporting to be a report under the hand of any Chemical Examiner or Assistant Chemical Examiner to Government or the Chief Inspector of Explosives or the Director of Finger Print Bureau or an officer of the Mint, upon any matter or thing duly submitted to him for examination or analysis and report in the course of any proceeding under this Code, may be used as evidence in any inquiry, trial or other proceeding under this Code. (1) Any document purporting to be a report under the hand of a Government scientific expert to whom this Section applies, upon any matter or thing duly submitted to him for examination or analysis and report in the course of any proceeding under this Code, may be used as evidence in any in