In Brief
The Supreme Court held that an accused person cannot produce copies of police diary pages (even if obtained under the Right to Information Act) to cross-examine the investigating officer during trial, unless specific statutory conditions under Section 172(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code are met. The Court ruled that the accused can only use police diary entries to confront the investigating officer when: (1) the police officer himself has refreshed his memory using those entries, or (2) the trial court has used them to contradict the officer. Since neither condition was satisfied in this case, the accused had no right to produce the diary copies. The Court set aside the High Court's order permitting such production and allowed the appeal, reaffirming that the trial court is the custodian of justice and confidentiality of investigation must be preserved.
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