‘Not a public document’: Supreme Court refuses to make charge sheets public

Charge sheet or a final investigation report filed in criminal cases is not a “public document” and cannot be put in public domain for free access, the Supreme Court said

Charge sheet or a final investigation report filed in criminal cases is not a “public document” and cannot be put in public domain for free access, the Supreme Court held on Friday, adding that doing so will violate the rights of the victim, accused and even the investigating agencies.

The Supreme Court said making charge sheets public will violate the rights of the victim, accused and even the investigating agencies. (ANI)

A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by journalist Saurav Das, who sought that all charge sheets or final reports should be uploaded on state websites as they are summary of police investigations in criminal cases.

“If all the charge sheets and relevant documents produced along with the charge sheets are put on the public domain or on the websites of the state governments, it will be contrary to the scheme of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and it may as such violate the rights of the accused as well as the victim and/or even the investigating agency,” the bench said in its judgment.

The petitioner relied on a 2016 decision of the Supreme Court that directed police to upload the first information reports (FIRs) within 24 hours of their registration. If FIRs, which are unsubstantiated allegations, could be made public, the petitioner argued, there was a greater need to disclose contents of a charge sheet, which is the investigation report on those charges.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, cited provisions of the CrPC, Evidence Act and the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 to buttress the point that uploading charge sheets on state website will induce transparency in criminal justice system.

However, the bench disagreed with the petitioner on every count. Countering the argument that charge sheet is a public document, the bench said, “On conjoint reading of Sections 173 and 207 of CrPC, the investigating agency is required to furnish the copies of the final report (charge sheet) along with the relevant documents to be relied upon by the prosecution to the accused and to none others.”

It also dealt with Section 74 of the Evidence Act, which defines ‘public documents’. “Copy of the charge sheet along with the necessary documents cannot be said to be public documents within the definition of ‘Public Documents’ as per Section 74 of the Evidence Act...reliance placed upon Section 74 and 76 of Evidence Act is absolutely misplaced,” the bench said.

The bench also considered the 2016 decision of the top court on which the petitioner placed reliance. “The directions issued by this court (in Youth Bar Association case) are in favour of the accused, which cannot be stretched to the public at large so far as the charge sheets are concerned,” it said. “Putting the FIR on the website cannot be equated with putting charge sheets along with the relevant documents on the public domain and on the websites of the state governments.”

Earlier, Bhushan had submitted to the court that Section 4(2) of RTI Act casts a duty on the public authorities to provide as much information suo motu (on their own) to the public at regular intervals. The bench said, “The reliance placed upon Section 4(2) of the RTI Act is also misconceived and misplaced...Copies of the charge sheet and the relevant documents along with the charge sheet do not fall within Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act (which specifies the information to be put in public domain by all public authorities).”

The petition was filed last year and the court did not issue a notice on it to the Centre or states for a response. As a result, the case was decided on preliminary submissions made by the petitioner.