Diary of proceedings in investigation
AI Assist
Summary
Police must keep a paginated day to day case diary recording when information came, when the investigation began and ended, places visited, actions taken and witness statements recorded under section 180. A court may call and consult the diary to aid its inquiry but may not admit it as evidence. The accused cannot demand or inspect the diary, except when it is used to refresh the investigating officer’s memory or to contradict him, in which case the Evidence Act rules apply.
Example
Priya files an FIR after her shop is robbed. The investigating officer notes the time information reached him, when he started and closed the inquiry, places visited and records witness statements in the paginated case diary. Later the court asks for the diary to check the investigation timeline and reads it to help decide, but does not treat it as evidence. If the officer relies on the diary to refresh his memory at trial, the Evidence Act rules on prior statements will apply.
Bare Act
Enacted text(1) Every police officer making an investigation under this Chapter shall day by day enter his proceedings in the investigation in a diary, setting forth the time at which the information reached him, the time at which he began and closed his investigation, the place or places visited by him, and a statement of the circumstances ascertained through his investigation.
(2) The statements of witnesses recorded during the course of investigation under section 180 shall be inserted in the case diary.
(3) The diary referred to in sub-section (1) shall be a volume and duly paginated.
(4) Any Criminal Court may send for the police diaries of a case under inquiry or trial in such Court, and may use such diaries, not as evidence in the case, but to aid it in such inquiry or trial.
(5) Neither the accused nor his agents shall be entitled to call for such diaries, nor shall he or they be entitled to see them merely because they are referred to by the Court; but, if they are used by the police officer who made them to refresh his memory, or if the Court uses them for the purpose of contradicting such police officer, the provisions of section 148 or section 164, as the case may be, of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, shall apply.
Previous year papers
Pick your exam. we'll email the most recent paper.