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Judgment
The petitioner is the same in these two applications.
He is the sole accused in two cases before the Enquiry
Commissioner and Special Judge (Vigilance),
Thiruvananthapuram. One is C.C No.4/2005 and the other
is C.C 5/2005. The petition shows that during investigation,
the Investigating Officer had seized a material document,
and it was released on kachit to the concerned party on a
bond by which he undertook to produce the document in
court as and when required. It is said to be a very material
document on the basis of which the accused also will have
to mould his defence. Now the accused wants to have the
document produced in court. His grievance is that when he
approached the trial court for a direction to cause
production of the document, it was turned down. If it is a
very material document on which the said prosecution
relies, and which the Investigating Officer released on
kachit on a bond, it must be the concern of the court to
cause production of the document during trial. If it was released on kachit from the court, it must be a document in
court''s custody and the court will be bound to enforce
production of document during trial. In either case, it must
be the concern of the court to see that the document is
produced in court during trial. Otherwise it will cause
prejudice to the accused. The order passed by the trial
court is not seen produced along with the Crl.M.C. Anyway,
the grievance and concern of the petitioner is considered by
this Court, and I am inclined to dispose of these applications
as follows.
a. The trial court shall verify whether the document
in question was released from court on kachit, or by the
Investigating Officer on kachit.
b. If it is a document relied on by the prosecution,
the trial court will have to take necessary steps to cause
production of the particular document during trial.
c. As and when the document is produced,
opportunity shall be given to the accused to peruse the
document so that he can mould his defence.
In view of the above directions, the request in these
applications to quash the prosecution as such is not
considered for the time being. If the material document is
not produced during trial, the accused will definitely get the
benefit of it. Let him think wisely later whether he should
make a further application to quash the prosecution.