The right to access evidence is pivotal for a fair trial, ensuring defendants can prepare their defense adequately.

JUDGMENT

Dated this the 13^th day of February, 2026 The accused in S.C.No.2712/2023 on the file of the Special Court for Pocso, Thiruvananthapuram, arising out of Crime No. 1200/2023 of Peroorkada police station filed this OP(Crl) under article 227 of the Constitution of the India, praying for quashing exhibits P3, P4 and P5 orders passed by the learned Special Judge and to allow exhibit P2 application seeking a direction to serve copy of the DVDs mentioned in Document No.9 in the final report.

2. The petitioner is facing trial for the offences punishable under sections 376, 376(2)(m), 313, 323 of IPC and sections 4 r/w 3, 6 r/w 5(j)(ii) of the POCSO Act . According to the learned Counsel for the petitioner, the mobile phone seized from the petitioner was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory and a report was already received by the prosecution and the same was produced before the trial court in the form of a DVD. His grievance is that, the copy of the above DVD was not furnished to him. He filed exhibit P2 application for getting a copy of the said DVD, which was rejected by the learned special judge as exhibit P3 to P5 orders. In exhibit P4 order the learned special judge stated that in the presence of the Counsel appearing for both sides two DVDs were played in court to determine whether sexually explicit material is available and it was seen that sexually explicit materials is seen in the first DVD. On a perusal of exhibit P4, it appears that, the learned special judge is of the view that permitting the petitioner to see the DVD will serve the purpose and that there is no necessity to serve its copy.

3. According to the learned Counsel, the sexually explicit materials allegedly contained in the DVD does not belong to the victim in this case and that it is a photo received by him from one of his friends which was there in his mobile phone, which, according to the learned counsel has nothing to do with the present case. Further according to the learned Counsel, the DVD contained more than two thousand messages and chats sent between the petitioner and the victim in the above case and according to the learned counsel those messages and chats are necessary for the purpose of proving his defence.

4. The learned Public Prosecutor strongly opposed the petition.

However, the learned public prosecutor is also not sure as to whether the alleged sexually explicit material contained in the above DVD is that of the victim in this case. However, the Public Prosecutor submitted that she has no objection in sharing the copy of the chats and messages sent between the petitioner and the victim. In the above circumstances this OP(Crl) is disposed of with a direction to the prosecution to serve a hard copy of the chats and messages sent between the petitioner and the victim and available in the above DVDs to the petitioner, before proceeding further with the trial.

5. The petitioner is directed not to publish the contents of the above chats and messages or share it with anybody else so as to affect the privacy of the victim. To the above extent exhibits P3, P4 and P5 are quashed.

Sd/-