Whether accused is to be acquitted if court has not drawn his attention to serological report U/S 313 of CRPC?

 The contention on behalf of the Appellant that the serological report was not put to him by the court Under Section 313 Code of Criminal Procedure and therefore, he has been prejudiced in his defence, has been raised for the first time before this Court. The serological report being available, it was a failure on the part of the trial court to bring it to the attention of the Appellant. The prosecution cannot be said to be guilty of not adducing or suppressing any evidence. In view of the nature of the evidence available in the present case, as discussed hereinbefore, we are of the opinion that no prejudice can be said to have been caused to the Appellant for that reason, as held in Nar Singh v. State of Haryana, MANU/SC/1004/2014 : (2015) 1 SCC 496:

32. ...When there is omission to put material evidence to the Accused in the course of examination Under Section 313 Code of Criminal Procedure, the prosecution is not guilty of not adducing or suppressing such evidence; it is only the failure on the part of the learned trial court. The victim of the offence or the Accused should not suffer for laches or omission of the court. Criminal justice is not one-sided. It has many facets and we have to draw a balance between conflicting rights and duties.

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Criminal Appeal No. 913 of 2016

Decided On: 28.09.2018

Hemudan Nanbha Gadhvi  Vs. State of Gujarat

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha and K.M. Joseph, JJ.

Citation: AIR 2018 SC 4760.

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