Section 311 CrPC permits recall of a witness when omitted documents are needed for fair adjudication, not to fill a lacuna.

Section 311 CrPC gives the court wide power to summon, recall or re-examine a witness at any stage, but only where the evidence is essential to a just decision. Because the complaints themselves referred to advance payments against receipts, and the complainant admitted in cross-examination that the relevant receipts and agreements were in his possession though not earlier filed, the court treated production of the Bayana Receipts, Agreements to Sell and Collaboration Agreements as necessary for fair adjudication rather than a mere attempt to fill a lacuna. The applications were therefore held maintainable and allowed.

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Issues: Whether the applications under Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for recalling and re-examining the complainant, so as to place on record the Bayana Receipts, Agreements to Sell and Collaboration Agreements referred to in the complaints and cross-examination, ought to be allowed or rejected as an attempt to fill up a lacuna.

Analysis: Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 confers wide power on the court to summon, recall or re-examine a witness at any stage, but the power must be exercised judiciously and only when the evidence is essential to a just decision. The complaints themselves referred to advance payments against receipts, and the complainant had also stated in cross-examination that he possessed the relevant receipts and agreements, though they had not been filed earlier. In that backdrop, bringing the documents on record was treated as material for a fair adjudication and not as an impermissible attempt to fill up a lacuna.

Conclusion: The applications under Section 311 were held to be maintainable and were allowed in favour of the petitioner.

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