Criminal lawyer: the accused cannot be discharged by relying upon the medical reports.

Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

The accused cannot be discharged at the stage of framing of charges by relying upon the medical reports filed with the charge sheet.

In the the case titled as "Bihari Lal vs State of Rajasthan and others", the supreme court had set aside the concurrent findings of the courts below, by which the session court discharged the accused, who was chargesheeted for the offence under section 307 IPC, on the basis of medical reports appreciation. The said order was upheld by the High Court.

While setting aside the said order of the discharge, the supreme court held that the medical report can be gone into, only when the prosecution would examine the doctors after trial, and the same cannot be looked into at the time of framing of charges. The approach of the the trial court was found to  be erroneous and faulty. Accordingly the Appeal was allowed and the Order discharging the accused was set aside.