{"id":225144,"date":"2023-02-04T20:47:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T15:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=225144"},"modified":"2023-02-20T14:33:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T09:03:20","slug":"charge-sheet-scrutiny-is-not-a-case-of-prying-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/charge-sheet-scrutiny-is-not-a-case-of-prying-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Charge sheet scrutiny is not a case of prying eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cCharge sheet scrutiny is not a case of prying eyes\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 4th February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Functioning of judiciary<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to Criminal justice system<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>–\u00a0 The Supreme Court has ruled that a charge sheet filed against an accused in a criminal case is not a \u2018public document\u2019 under the ambit of the Right to Information Act 2005 or the Indian Evidence Act.<\/p>\n

What is the reasoning provided by SC in this decision?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the Court\u2019s view, the charge sheet <\/strong>is different from the FIR. It cannot be shared with anyone other than the accused and the victim. A charge sheet is a comprehensive account of the crime <\/strong>in question.<\/p>\n

It has vital information <\/strong>such as a list of prosecution witnesses and documents<\/strong> in support of the investigating officer\u2019s conclusions.<\/p>\n

The details contained in these documents even before a trial begins would be detrimental to the accused and the victim<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are the arguments against the decision of the SC?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The judgement seems to contradict an order passed by the Court in Youth Bar Association of India vs Union of India (2016)<\/strong>. It directed that the FIR should be on the relevant investigating agency\u2019s website<\/strong> within 24 hours of its registration.<\/p>\n

In earlier days of the Republic, confidentiality<\/strong> was the tradition of the judiciary. Courts were a sacrosanct institution<\/strong>. The slightest criticism of judicial decisions invites contempt and punishment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We now have a situation where judges are often criticised in the media<\/strong> for judicial decisions that are unconventional<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is true that vested interests<\/strong> might engage in finding loopholes in the charge sheet to undermine the prosecution case<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But this should not prevent the public from access to the charge sheet <\/strong>before commencement of the trial. It should not be denied an opportunity to evaluate the quality of an investigation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Critical analysis<\/strong> by an outsider has the potential to enhance the soundness of an investigation<\/strong>. It can prevent prosecution against innocent individuals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A trial court will actually benefit from outsider scrutiny of the prosecution case<\/strong> if a charge sheet is made available to the public.<\/p>\n

A chance for the public to study a charge sheet will ensure that prospects of loosely framed charge sheets <\/strong>will be fewer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cCharge sheet scrutiny is not a case of prying eyes\u201d published in The Hindu on 4th February 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Functioning of judiciary Relevance– Issues related to Criminal justice system News–\u00a0 The Supreme Court has ruled that a charge sheet filed against an accused in a criminal… Continue reading Charge sheet scrutiny is not a case of prying eyes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-225144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700802206,"cached_date":1701336647},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}