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A Delhi Court has passed an order directing that a copy of a Delhi riots FIR registered at Khajuri Khas be supplied to Umar Khalid. (Umar Khalid vs State)
Khalid was arrested in the FIR last month.
Observing that the documents do not contain any sensitive material, the Court has also directed the supply of Delhi Police's remand application, the remand order, Khalid's medical reports from the period of police custody as well as Delhi Police's reply to an application moved by him.
The order was passed by Purshotam Pathak, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, North-East, Delhi while dealing with Khalid's application for supplying the aforesaid documents.
The Prosecution vehemently opposed the application on the ground that there was no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure that mandated the supply of the documents before cognizance.
Supplying documents at this stage would open the Pandora box, it was said.
The Prosecution stated that Khalid had anyway been informed about the grounds of his arrest.
The Court observed that it was a settled proposition of law that no person could be detained in custody without being informed of the grounds for such arrest.
"Article 22 (1) of Indian Constitution stipulates that no police official can arrest an individual without informing the grounds of his arrest. Articles 22 of the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right of protection against the arrest and detention. Section 50 of Cr.P.C. provides that every police official with authority to arrest someone without warrant, must inform the person getting arrested about the crime for which he is arrested and other relevant grounds for the arrest. The provisions of Section 50 of the Code are mandatory. The police official must inform the arrested person all his rights after detainment and this is the duty of police official which he can not refuse.", the Court said.
Stating that detention in absence of knowledge of particulars of alleged offence or the grounds of arrest is illegal, the Court held,
The Court further noted that there were judgments of various High Courts which required the police officials to supply the copy of FIR to the accused before filing of chargesheet or immediately after registration of FIR.
".. it is vitally necessary that the accused should be granted copy of First Information Report at the earliest possible stage in order to enable him to get the benefit of legal advice.", it was stated.
In the present case, the Court observed, there was no sensitive material in the remand application or the order and the chargesheet qua other accused persons had also been filed.
The Court thus ordered,
SPP Manoj Chaudhary appeared for State.
Advocate Sanya Kumar appeared for Khalid.
Read the Order: