Approver testimony after pardon remains compulsory, with statutory protection against adverse use of compelled answers.

An approver who has accepted pardon remains under the statutory duty to be examined as a witness in the committal court and, if committed, in the trial court. That obligation is not displaced merely because he has resiled from his earlier statement, is said to have withheld full disclosure, or is shown as an accused in connected proceedings; the statutory scheme continues until the Public Prosecutor certifies wilful concealment or false evidence, which may then attract Section 308 action. Section 132 of the Evidence Act protects compelled answers from adverse use against the witness, so the self-incrimination objection does not defeat examination.

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Issues: Whether an approver who has accepted pardon can refuse to be examined as a witness on the ground that he has resiled from his earlier statement, has not made a full disclosure, or is also shown as an accused in connected cases, and whether his testimony is protected from use against him.

Analysis: Section 306(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 makes it obligatory that a person to whom pardon has been tendered and accepted be examined as a witness in the committal court and, if the case is committed, in the trial court. The approver cannot unilaterally cast off the pardon; the statutory obligation continues until the Public Prosecutor certifies wilful concealment or false evidence, whereupon proceedings under Section 308 may follow. The fact that the approver has resiled from his statement does not by itself destroy the statutory duty to examine him. The apprehension that his evidence may be used against him in other pending cases is answered by Section 132 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, which compels truthful answers but protects the witness from arrest, prosecution, or use of compelled answers against him, save for false evidence. The constitutional objection based on self-incrimination was therefore rejected.

Conclusion: The approver was bound to be examined as a witness, and his objection to such examination was untenable. The State's appeal succeeded and the order preventing his examination was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: An approver who has accepted pardon remains bound by the statutory mandate to depose as a witness until the prosecution invokes the consequence prescribed by law, and he cannot refuse examination merely because he has resiled or fears self-incrimination; Section 132 independently protects him from adverse use of compelled testimony.

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