A is detained in prison under the National Security Act. Can A be ordered to be produced before Court for recording his evidence where the Court has located 80 km or more from the prison?

Question: A is detained in prison under the National Security Act. Can A be ordered to be produced before Court for recording his evidence where the Court has located 80 km or more from the prison? If yes state under what circumstances can the officer in charge of the prison abstain from carrying out the Court’s order? If yes, when? [U.P.H.J.S. 1984]

Find the answer only on Legal Bites. [A is detained in prison under the National Security Act. Can A be ordered to be produced before Court for recording his evidence where the Court has located 80 km or more from the prison?]

Answer

Officer in charge of prison to abstain from carrying out order in certain contingencies, Prisoner to be brought to Court in custody, and Power to issue a commission for examination of a witness in prison are defined under Section 269, 270, and 271 of CrPC 1973.

Section 269 of CrPC lays down a provision when “Officer in charge of prison to abstain from carrying out order in certain contingencies”. The section runs as below:

• is by reason of sickness or infirmity unfit to be removed from the prison; or
• is under committal for trial or under remand pending trial or pending a preliminary investigation; or
• is in custody for a period that would expire before the expiration of the time required for complying with the order and for taking him back to the prison in which he is confined or detained; or
• is a person to whom an order made by the State Government under Section 268 applies,

the officer in charge of the prison shall abstain from carrying out the Court’s order and shall send to the Court a statement of reasons for so abstaining:

Provided that where the attendance of such person is required for giving evidence at a place not more than twenty-five kilometers distant from the prison, the officer in charge of the prison shall not so abstain for the reason mentioned in Clause (b).

This section provides guidance to the officer-in-charge of the prison and lays down the grounds on which he should or should not abstain from carrying out the Court’s order passed under section 267.

The Allahabad High Court has held in Ranjeet Singh v. the State of UP, 1995 Cr LJ 3505 (All) that only reasonable construction of the words “is under committal for trial or under remand pending a preliminary investigation” occurring in section 269 CrPC is that committal proceedings, trial or investigation, as the case may be, should be in actual progress and not merely pending.

Where the proceedings are not in actual progress, an accused can be reasonably sent for the purpose of another investigation, committal proceedings, or trial. Thus, the officer-in-charge of the prison may, with the consent of the concerned Court, carry out the order under section 267 of CrPC of the subsequent Court.

In the present case at hand, A is detained in prison under the National Security Act. A can be ordered to be produced before Court for recording his evidence where the Court has located 80 km or more from the prison but by virtue of section 269 of the code, the officer in charge of the prison abstain from carrying out the Court’s order.

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