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The court said that the rights of the accused and the victims could be violated by making the charge sheet public.
Hearing on the petition to make the charge sheet and final report publicly available
The bench said that the chargesheet is not a ‘public document’ and cannot be published online
New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Friday said that the charge sheet filed by any investigating agency is not a public document. The court said that the rights of the accused and the victims could be violated by making the charge sheet public. The apex court made this remark while hearing a petition filed by journalist Saurabh Das for making publicly available the charge sheet and final report filed under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
A bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar said that sharing the charge sheet on the website would be contrary to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The bench said that the charge sheet is not a ‘public document’ and cannot be published online. The Supreme Court dismissed this Public Interest Litigation (PIL) due to lack of comprehensive basis for hearing.
The Supreme Court said that if FIRs are given to people unrelated to the case such as bodies and NGOs, they can be misused. Advocate Prashant Bhushan told the court, “The public has a right to know who is the accused and who has committed the offence.” There has been transparency in the functioning of the criminal justice system.
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Tags: Chargesheet Filing, PIL, Prashant bhushan, supreme court of india
FIRST PUBLISHED : January 21, 2023, 08:07 IST
