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SC directs trial court to simplify records to ease legal proceedings
The Supreme Court on Monday issued directions to all trial courts across the country for cataloguing witnesses, evidence and material objects to ensure systematic presentation of evidence and efficient appreciation of case records in a criminal trial
The Supreme Court on Monday issued directions to all trial courts across the country for cataloguing witnesses, evidence and material objects to ensure systematic presentation of evidence and efficient appreciation of case records in a criminal trial.
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, “To ensure a systematic presentation of evidence that enables efficient appreciation of the record, we issue the following directions to all trial courts across the country. These directions aim to institutionalize a standardized format for cataloguing witnesses, documentary evidence, and material objects.”
The bench laid down the format while acquitting a man of the serious allegation of brutal sexual assault of a four-year old finding the conduct of the police officers who conducted the investigation of the case to be “highly pedantic and gravely negligent”.
The bench said that the common guidelines will serve to facilitate better comprehension and immediate reference for all stakeholders, including the appellate courts - high courts and Supreme Court. In complex cases, such as conspiracies, economic offences or trials involving voluminous oral or documentary evidence, where the list of witnesses and exhibits are substantially long, the trial court may prepare charts only for the material relevant, and relied-upon witnesses and documents, so that the charts do not become “unwieldy compilations”.
The case before the court involved allegations against one Manojbhai Parmar who was accused of rape and sexual assault on minor girl under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The case was registered in 2013 at Kalol police station in Gujarat and both the trial court and Gujarat high court upheld the life sentence awarded to him. Following the top court’s acquittal, he will get to walk out of the jail after 12 years.
The court said that the facts of the case indicated something “very fishy and unnerving” as this case showed that the witnesses who deposed against the accused were totally untrustworthy as the bench suspected them to be the real culprits.
“When investigations are carried out in a manner that betrays their foundational purpose, and trials become mechanical exercises divorced from the quest for truth, the resulting miscarriage of justice reverberates far beyond the confines of the courtroom. It erodes public faith, instills uncertainty in victims, and sends a chilling message to society at large that the pursuit of justice may falter not at the altar of complexity but at the hands of indifference,” said justice Mehta, writing the judgment for the bench.
The criminal law, which must stand as a bulwark protecting the vulnerable, risks becoming an instrument of unintended cruelty when procedural lapses and institutional negligence overshadow substantive justice, it added.
