NEW DELHI, Dec 22: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought a response from Congress leader P Chidambaram, his son Karti Chidambaram and other accused in the Aircel-Maxis case on a plea by the CBI challenging a trial court’s order directing the agency to supply un-relied upon documents to them.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued notice on the CBI’s petition and granted the Chidambarams and others one week to file their replies.
The high court, which was informed that the case is listed before the trial court on January 18, fixed the plea for further hearing on January 11, 2024.
The CBI, in its petition, contended that the trial court erred while directing the investigating agency to supply all un-relied upon documents to the accused.
Investigating agencies, for the purpose of prosecution, may not rely on all the documents they have gathered during the probe resulting in the documents getting bifurcated into “relied” and “un-relied” categories. While the former may benefit the prosecution, the latter could help the defence, which would normally want to inspect all the documents, including those the probe agency has not relied upon.
The CBI, represented through senior advocate Sanjay Jain, said the special judge had taken cognisance of the charge sheet on November 27, 2021 and issued summons for the appearance of all the accused. On January 20, 2022, the trial court had directed the CBI to file a list of un-relied upon documents before the court and supply copies of the same to the accused.
“Accordingly, a list of 67 un-relied upon documents was filed by CBI on February 18, 2022 and copies of the same were supplied to the accused persons. Applications were filed under section 207 CrPC by the accused persons for supply of un-relied upon documents. Special judge vide order dated March 5, 2022 directed CBI to supply all un-relied upon documents as sought by the accused,” the CBI counsel said.
The agency challenged the March 5, 2022 order and contended that the trial court had erred in observing that the CBI is obliged to supply all un-relied upon documents to the accused.
The CBI said it apprehended that the sweeping direction to provide all un-relied upon documents shall hamper further investigation. (PTI)
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