Accused Has Right To Access All Digital Documents Produced By Prosecution, Except If They Impinge Victim's Privacy: Kerala HC Reiterates

The Kerala High Court has held that all accused have a right to access documents produced by the prosecution in a criminal case, except when they infringe the right of privacy of the victim.

The Court was hearing a Criminal Revision Petition to set aside a trial court's Order denying the Petitioner access to certain CCTV footage obtained from his own house. The Special Public Prosecutor appearing for the state claimed that the original CCTV visuals are with the Petitioner.

The question before the High Court was whether the trial court was justified in denying the Petitioner to view the CCTV visuals, which were part of the prosecution records and whether its access was crucial to ensuring a fair trial.

A Singe-Judge Bench of Justice A. Badharudeen held, "The right of the accused to defend a case is a salutary right and therefore the accused has a right of access to the documents including digital documents excluding the same contains privacy of the victim as held in Gopalkrishnan alias Dileep v. State of Kerala."

Advocate Reshmi Nandanan appeared for the Petitioner and Senior Public Prosecutor Renjit Geogre appeared for the State of Kerala.

The Court records that the Special Judge had found that the incident which occurred in the courtyard of the accused's house was out of the coverage area of the CCTV camera and hence, examination of the pen drive containing the footage sought for by the Petitioner was not necessary. The Court said the right to access documents cannot be denied and such denial would amount to a "not fair trial".

It was clarified that admissibility of the CCTV footage produced in pen drive, without certificate under Section 65B of the Evidence Act, can only be decided by the Special Judge, on merits following the law on the point. "Viewing so, the stand taken by the learned Special Judge denying the same is not justifiable and the same requires interference." the Court stated. The Court, therefore, set aside the Trial Court's Order.

Cause Title: Aji v. State of Kerala [CRL.REV.PET 1218 of 2024]

Click here to read/download the Order