Case diary can’t be used as evidence: Apex court

The Supreme Court  has ruled that no court should rely on a case diary as evidence and acquit or convict an accused on the basis of that. The judgment could protect the interests of witnesses in criminal cases while keeping under wraps the investigation done by police.
The judgment comes in a case in which the court set free 77 accused who had been convicted with sentences ranging from life term to smaller imprisonment by the Andhra Pradesh high court for killing six people.

The victims were suspected of doing black magic on animals and causing their death nine years ago. The accused hired an exorcist to hunt down the ‘culprits’. The trial court acquitted them saying the prosecution couldn’t substantiate the charges, and the high court called for the case diary that records the investigation.

It drew corroboration from the case diary, which is otherwise excluded from trial except when an investigation officer wants to consult it to refresh his memory or the court wants to examine it to find out whether the investigation had been conducted in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

A bench of Justices DK Jain and RM Lodha ruled that “a criminal court can use the case diary to help an inquiry or trial but not as evidence. This position is made clear by Section 172(2) of the Code’’.