Supreme Court Allows Use of Unrelied Investigation Files in Defense

The Supreme Court settled a procedural controversy by deciding that an accused person may inspect investigation documents that were not relied upon by the prosecution and can seek their production at the appropriate stage of the trial. The ruling arose from a dispute over alleged fake documents used to secure a consultancy contract for the permanent campus of the Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, causing a loss of nearly ₹1.92 crore.

The bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, instructed the CBI to have the files ready for trial and to allow the accused to pinpoint specific documents during inspection, which must then be recorded and produced without delay — including when a prosecution witness is examined. The court also said that if certain records are not in the CBI’s possession, the accused may obtain them via the Right-to-Information Act or witness testimony.

However, source information and certain registers remain protected. The decision builds on earlier Supreme Court precedents that link access to unrelied material with the right to a fair trial under Article 21.