Complainant Is Entitled To Her Own Section 164 CrPC Statement To Prefer A Protest Petition: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court has recently said that a complainant can seek her a copy of her own statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC in order to prefer a protest petition. The petitioner was the complainant in a case which was investigated by the CBCID. The CBCID filed a refer report/ final report in December 2023 (Ext P3) stating that the offence alleged has not been made out and requested the trial court to strike off the crime from the records. Dissatisfied by this the petitioner wanted to file a protest complaint. For this purpose, she moved an application before the magistrate's court to peruse her statement recorded under Section 164 Cr.P.C by the Magistrate. The same was dismissed on October 5, 2024, after which she moved the high court. After perusing the contents of the refer report, Justice C Jayachandran rejected the argument of the prosecution that the report is not final and that it can be investigated further on after collecting new evidence. It said: "It is true that in every case, further investigation can be conducted, if new evidence surfaces, as enabled by Section 173(8) Cr.P.C. However, such an option on the eventuality of surfacing new material cannot affect the finality of a refer report/final report under Section 173(8), as things stand established as of the moment. De hors and independent of the so called finality of Ext. P3 , the option available for a dissatisfied defacto complainant is to prefer a protest complaint. If that be so, the right of the defacto complainant to get a copy of her statement recorder under Section 164 Cr.P.C cannot be doubted at all. Even the accused is entitled to get a copy of the police report, the F.I.R. and all the statements recorded under Section 161 and Section 164, as per Section 207 or 208, as the case may be, the only precondition being that such right can be enforced after the filing of the final report and the Magistrate take cognizance of the same". Before the high court the petitioner's counsel argued that Magistrate's order which had relied on Supreme Court's decision in A v. State of Uttar Pradhesh and another, adding that the same was irrelevant to the present case. It said that the order relied by magistrate court was a case where an application was made by the accused, before the completion of investigation, wherein the court had held that accused is not entitled to a copy until the investigation is over and a report under Section 173 has been filed. Distinguishing the judgment, petitioner's counsel said that, in the instant case, a copy of statement under Section 164 is sought for by the person who gave the statement, that too, after completion of investigation and filing refer report/final report. He thereafter relied on Rule 226 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, whereby even a stranger is entitled to issuance of copies of documents, provided sufficient cause is shown. Meanwhile prosecution opposed the petition saying that was not a case where refer charge was filed after finding that the accused has not committed the offences. The counsel submitted that in this case, further proceedings were dropped due to insufficiency of evidence. Therefore, the prosecution submitted that if incriminating evidence surfaces at a later point, a final report assigning guilt of the accused can be filed. He said that the investigation cannot be deemed to have been concluded, for which reason a copy of the Section 164 CrPC statement cannot be issued to the petitioner.Rejecting the prosecution's argument the high court said, "In the instant case, Ext.P3 final report/refer report has already been filed, based upon which, notice has been issued to the defacto complainant, as could be seen from the endorsement contained in Ext.P3 (see running page no.31). In the circumstances, this Court is of the opinion that the petitioner/defacto complainant is entitled to a copy of her statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. Moreover, it is noticed that as per Rule 226 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, even a stranger is entitled to issuance of copies of documents, provided sufficient cause is shown. Needless to say that a final report is a document filed before the court, which is also in the custody of the court. In the instant case, the defacto complainant had shown sufficient cause, that is to say, to enable her to prefer a protest complaint as against the refer report. The requirements of Rule 226 is also satisfied thus". The high court further said that the trial court had wrongly placed reliance on A v. State of Uttar Pradesh as that was a case where the accused had sought for a copy of the Section 164 CrPC statement, that too, before filing the final report and taking of cognizance by the court. Allowing her plea the court set aside the magistrate court's order directing it to issue to the petitioner a copy of her statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC. Case Title: Snigdha Kumar v The Inspector of Police and AnotherCase No: OP (Crl.) 799 of...

Complainant Is Entitled To Her Own Section 164 CrPC Statement To Prefer A Protest Petition: Kerala High Court

Manju Elsa Isac

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