Court-ordered preliminary enquiry reports may require early disclosure where fairness and natural justice demand it.

A court-ordered preliminary enquiry report and connected documents may have to be disclosed before the ordinary Section 207 CrPC stage where the report materially affects the parties, no privilege is claimed, and fairness would otherwise be prejudiced. The ordinary rule of supply at the later stage cannot be applied mechanically when the report has already influenced judicial action and the matter is outside routine criminal process. Applying principles of fair trial and natural justice, the appellant was entitled to the report, and the writ proceedings were restored for fresh consideration on merits.

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Issues: Whether the appellant was entitled, in the peculiar facts of the case, to a copy of the preliminary enquiry report and connected documents before the stage contemplated under Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, and whether the High Court was justified in closing the writ proceedings without examining the report.

Analysis: The High Court had itself directed a preliminary enquiry and called for the report, but later closed the writ proceedings after the State changed its stand and before the report was meaningfully examined. The denial of access to the report was held to be unjustified because the report had formed the basis of the earlier closure decision, no specific privilege had been pleaded against disclosure, and the facts were not ordinary criminal process but a consequence of judicially supervised enquiry. In such a situation, the ordinary rule that documents are furnished at the stage of Section 207 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 could not be applied mechanically so as to defeat fairness and prejudice the defence. The right to fair trial and principles of natural justice required disclosure.

Conclusion: The appellant was held entitled to the preliminary enquiry report and related documents, and the writ proceedings were ordered to be restored for fresh consideration on merits.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a court-ordered preliminary enquiry materially affects the parties and no privilege is claimed, fairness and natural justice may require disclosure of the report before the normal Section 207 stage, and the court must decide the matter on its merits rather than close it without examining that report.

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