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Girish Sharma & Ors. v. The State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 797Decided 23 Aug 2017
Criminal Appeal Nos. 939-940 of 2017
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

This order sends the case back; it does not decide the dispute. Three persons were cited as prosecution witnesses, not accused, in a corruption chargesheet. The Chhattisgarh High Court allowed them to be summoned as accused under Section 319 Cr.P.C., reasoning that Section 306 Cr.P.C. was the only route to use an accomplice as a witness.

Decision Breakdown

This is not a final decision on the dispute. The Court held that the High Court's legal reasoning was flawed and set aside its order. It sent the question of whether the three should be summoned as accused back to the High Court to be dealt with afresh in accordance with law. The High Court was directed not to rely on their statements under Sections 161 and 164 and to take into account the advanced stage of evidence in the trial.

Lesson Learnt

A prosecutor is not required to use the Section 306 Cr.P.C. pardon procedure before citing a suspect as a witness instead of an accused. There is no final ruling yet on whether these three persons will be made accused.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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