Legal Reference Library

In State of Kerala v. Babu, (1999) 4 SCC 621 the Apex Court was confronted with the question as to whether the statement of a witness recorded under S.161 of Cr.P.C. in one particular crime could be used against that witness in any other trial enquiry or proceedings by the accused. Statement recorded by an investigating officer in any case which was under investigation being a statement made under S. 161 of the Code, the same can be used for the limited purpose provided under S.162 of the Code read with S.145 of the Evidence Act. There can be no quarrel with this approach in regard to the use of the previous statements of a witness made in the course of another investigation being used in the course of another criminal trial. This is because the very object of enactment of S.161 of the Code and S.145 of the Evidence Act is to create a right in the accused to make use of the previous statements of the witnesses for the purpose of contradiction and for impeaching the merit of the w...

The Supreme Court in Harbeer Singh Vs. Sheeshpal, has observed that delay in recording of statements of the prosecution witnesses under Section 161 CrPC., although those witnesses were or could be available for examination when the Investigating Officer visited the scene of occurrence or soon thereafter, would cast a doubt upon the prosecution case. A bench comprising Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy made this observation while upholding a Rajasthan High Court judgment, which had acquitted the accused in a murder case. Referring to Ganesh Bhavan Patel Vs. State Of Maharashtra, the court observed that though it is a well-settled law that delay in recording the statement of the witnesses does not necessarily discredit their testimony, but if those witnesses were or could be available for examination when the Investigating Officer visited the scene of occurrence or soon thereafter, and even then the delay has occurred, it would cast a doubt upon the prosecution case. T...