Seized muddamal documents are not automatically discoverable copies unless the prosecution relies on them as evidence.

Documents seized during investigation as muddamal articles do not automatically fall within the copy-supply scheme under Section 173(5)(a) and Section 173(7) of the Code. The prosecution must first propose to rely on the documents as documentary evidence; only then are they documents forwarded with the police report and subject to copies for the accused. Section 207 similarly extends only to the police report and the documents forwarded with it, not to every seized article that merely takes documentary form. On the stated facts, the accused had no right to copies of the seized items.

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Issues: Whether documents seized as muddamal articles during search are documents referred to in Section 173(5)(a) and Section 173(7) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, so as to entitle the accused to copies thereof.

Analysis: Section 173(5)(a) obliges forwarding of the documents on which the prosecution proposes to rely as documentary evidence, while Section 173(7) enables supply of copies of those forwarded documents. The scheme of search and seizure under Sections 165, 100, 102 and 104 shows that articles seized in investigation may be retained as muddamal and merely identified at trial. Where such seized articles happen to contain documents, they do not automatically become documents forwarded under Section 173(5)(a) unless the prosecution proposes to use them as documentary evidence. Section 207 likewise entitles the accused to copies of the police report and the documents forwarded with it, not to every seized article that may incidentally be in the form of a document.

Conclusion: Seized muddamal articles which happen to be documents were not, on the facts of the case, documents within Section 173(5)(a) or Section 173(7), and the accused had no right to copies under those provisions.

Ratio Decidendi: Only those documents seized during investigation which the prosecution proposes to rely upon as documentary evidence fall within the supply-of-copies scheme under Section 173(5) and Section 173(7) of the Code; seized articles merely because they are in documentary form do not.

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