On S.313 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 : A Recent View

 On S.313 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 : A Recent View

An interesting Judgment was passed by Hon'ble Supreme Court on 3 March 2023.

In context of Section 313 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 it has been commented at page 10 and 11 of Premchand v The State of Maharashtra [2023] GCtR 512 (SC) thus : - 

"a. section 313, Cr. P.C. [clause (b) of sub-section 1] is a valuable safeguard in the trial process for the accused to establish his innocence;

 

b. section 313, which is intended to ensure a direct dialogue between the court and the accused, casts a mandatory duty on the court to question the accused generally on the case for the purpose of enabling him to personally explain any circumstances appearing in the evidence against him;

 

c. when questioned, the accused may not admit his involvement at all and choose to flatly deny or outrightly repudiate whatever is put to him by the court;

 

d. the accused may even admit or own incriminating circumstances adduced against him to adopt legally recognized defences;

 

e. an accused can make a statement without fear of being cross-examined by the prosecution or the latter having any right to cross-examine him;

 

f. the explanations that an accused may furnish cannot be considered in isolation but has to be considered in conjunction with the evidence adduced by the prosecution and, therefore, no conviction can be premised solely on the basis of the section 313 statement(s);

 

g. statements of the accused in course of examination under section 313, since not on oath, do not constitute evidence under section 3 of the Evidence Act, yet, the answers given are relevant for finding the truth and examining the veracity of the prosecution case;

 

h. statement(s) of the accused cannot be dissected to rely on the inculpatory part and ignore the exculpatory part and has/have to be read in the whole, inter alia, to test the authenticity of the exculpatory nature of admission; and

 

i. if the accused takes a defence and proffers any alternate version of events or interpretation, the court has to carefully analyze and consider his statements;

 

j. any failure to consider the accused’s explanation of incriminating circumstances, in a given case, may vitiate the trial and/or endanger the conviction."

Kindly note that full text Judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court can be downloaded absolutely free of cost from the official website at the link https://main.sci.gov.in/judgments - Then entering the date of Judgment, for example, as 3 March 2023.

Written by 

Vishal

Delhi

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