Delhi violence: HC adjourns police's plea against order to supply physical copy of chargesheet to accused

New Delhi [India], November 6 : The Delhi High Court on Friday adjourned to November 11 hearing on a petition filed by the Delhi Police challenging a trial court order directing the investigating agency to supply a physical copy of the chargesheet along with other documents to the accused persons in connection with a UAPA case related to the northeast Delhi violence.
Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad, appearing for the Delhi Police, had earlier urged the Delhi High Court to set aside the orders passed by the trial court on September 21 and October 21.
"The trial court has directed the state to supply a physical copy of the chargesheet along with other documents to the accused persons. While doing so, the trial court was pleased to put the 'onus to supply' completely on the investigating agency ignoring the legal provisions in this regard," Prasad submitted.
The Delhi Police, in its plea before the High Court, said that the police report itself is running into about 2,700 pages, a total number of documents and statements of witness running into about 18,000 pages.
"There are 23 volumes including the police report which were filed before the trial court. The petition was filed under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) whereby the petitioner is challenging the legality and validity of orders," the plea said.
"The trial court has erred and passed a mechanical order dated October 21 directing the supply of a physical copy of chargesheet ignoring the submissions of the state as also the legal provisions. Further, the trial court allowed the application under Section 207 of the CrPC filed by the accused for the supply of a physical copy of the chargesheet in violation of the law contained in Section 4 read with Section 81 of the Information Technology Act, 2000," it added.
However, the plea said that the provision also indicates that an exception is provided by the legislation that if the documents are voluminous in nature then, instead of furnishing a copy thereof, the court can direct that accused be allowed to inspect it either personally or through a pleader in court.
"But, the petitioner has in fact supplied the e-copy/soft copy of the chargesheet in a pen drive to the accused persons/respondents. There is no travesty of justice if a hard copy is not made available to the accused persons," the plea said.
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police had chargesheeted 15 accused under the provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in connection with the violence that erupted in the northeast parts of the national capital in February this year.
At least 53 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in the violence that took place in northeast Delhi between February 24 and 26 sparked by clashes between groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act.