Suffian LP (delivering the judgment of the Court):

This is a reference under s. 66(1) of the Courts of Judicature Act No. 7 of 1964 reserving for our decision the following questions of law of public interest:

(1) Whether a person charged with a criminal offence or offences triable summarily before a subordinate Court is entitled in law at any, and if so, at what stage after his arrest to obtain copies of statements of witnesses recorded by the police in the course of investigations under s. 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

(2) Whether a person charged with a criminal offence or offences is entitled to obtain a copy of a statement made by him to a police officer under the provisions of s. 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

At first blush this was an attempt by Encik Sri Ram, Counsel for the applicant ("accused"), to obtain copies of statements made by witnesses for the prosecution ("police statements") in advance of the trial - pretrial discovery, as in a civil trial.

But during the course of arguments he narrows down the scope of the questions and says that all he is interested in is this: a witness called by the prosecution is in the box being cross-examined. Cou