Recorded talk on CD can be evidence, rules Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that tape recorded conversation is admissible in evidence and the compact disc containing such conversation is a document under the provisions of the Evidence Act.

Giving this ruling a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C.Pant said the CD will be admissible as evidence provided firstly, the conversation is relevant to the matters in issue; secondly, there is identification of the voice; and, thirdly, the accuracy of the tape recorded conversation is proved.

In this case the appellant Shamsher Singh Verma was alleged to have sexually abused a nine-year-old girl. He filed an application alleging that there is recording of conversation between Sandeep Verma (father of the victim) and Saurabh (son of the accused) and Meena Kumari (wife of the accused).

The application was opposed by the prosecution. Consequently, the trial court rejected the same and this was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The present appeal is directed against this verdict.

Allowing the appeal, the Bench said “in view of the definition of ‘document’ in Evidence Act, and the law laid down by this Court, we hold that the compact disc is also a document. It is not necessary for the court to obtain admission or denial on a document under sub-section (1) to Section 294 Cr.P.C personally from the accused or complainant or the witness.”

The bench pointed out that the accused had alleged that he has been implicated due to property dispute.

It is also stated that some conversation is in possession of his son. “We are not inclined to go into the truthfulness of the conversation sought to be proved by the defence but, in the facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the view that the courts below have erred in law in not allowing the application of the defence to get played the compact disc relating to conversation between father of the victim and son and wife of the appellant regarding alleged property dispute”, the Bench said.

It held that the courts below have erred in law in rejecting the application to play the compact disc in question to enable the public prosecutor to admit or deny, and to get it sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory, by the defence.

The appellant is in jail and there appears to be no intention on his part to unnecessarily linger the trial, particularly when the prosecution witnesses have been examined, it said and set aside the impugned judgment.

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