Contravention of section

Evidence of Police officers diminishes its value. A contravention of section 172, lays the evidence of the police officer: open to adverse criticism and may diminish its value, but it does not have the effect of making that evidence inadmissible.

S. 162 (1)-Contravention of section-Effect of. It appears to their Lordships that the effect of a contravention of the section depends on the prohibition which has been con­travened. If the contravention consists in the signing of a statement made to the police and reduced into writing, the evidence of the witness who signed it does not become inadmissible. There are no words either in the section or elsewhere in the statute which express or imply such a consequence. Still less can it be said that the statute has the effect of vitiating the whole proceedings when evidence is given by a witness who has signed such a statement. But the value of his evidence may be seriously impaired as a consequence of the contravention of this statutory safeguard against improper practices the use by a witness while he is giving evidence of a statement made by him to the police raises different considerations. The categorical prohibition of such use would be merely disregarded if reliance were to be placed on the evidence of a witness who had made material use of the statement when he was giving evidence at the trial. When, therefore, the Magistrate or presiding Judge discovers that a witness has made material use of such a statement it is his duty under the section to disregard the evidence of that witness as inadmissible.