SC Rejects Petition Demanding FIRs Be Made Public Within 24 Hours
New Delhi, 21st January 2023: According to its 2016 ruling in the case of the Youth Bar Association of India versus the Union of India, the Supreme Court prohibited the posting of FIRs on the websites of police and state governments within 24 hours of their registration.
To advance the people’s Right to Information (RTI), attorney Prashant Bhushan relied on the 2016 ruling in his role as Saurav Das’s counsel (RTI).
On the grounds that the charge sheet cannot be deemed a public record under the terms of the Evidence Act since they are private documents, a bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar dismissed the case as lacking substance. The Court ruled that publishing the chargesheets and pertinent documents in the public domain or on websites would violate the rights of the accused, the victim, and even the investigative agency.
