Framing of charge: defence documents are ordinarily irrelevant unless admitted and unimpeachable; only prima facie prosecution material matters.

At the stage of framing of charge, the court examines only whether the prosecution material discloses a prima facie case and does not assess the accused's defence or weigh evidence. Defence documents not forming part of the prosecution case are ordinarily irrelevant at that stage unless they are admitted and unimpeachable. If the prosecution material, even if accepted in full, does not disclose the offence, discharge may follow; otherwise, the accused cannot insist on consideration of disputed defence material. The accused was therefore not entitled to rely on defence documents to seek discharge at the charge-framing stage.

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Issues: Whether, at the stage of framing of charge, the accused can rely upon documents produced by the defence to seek discharge.

Analysis: The stage of framing of charge is confined to determining whether a prima facie case exists for proceeding against the accused. At that stage the Court does not weigh evidence or assess the probable defence of the accused. Materials collected during investigation may be considered for deciding whether the prosecution case discloses sufficient ground for proceeding, but documents relied upon by the defence and not forming part of the prosecution case cannot ordinarily be looked into unless they are admitted and unimpeachable. The Court approved the settled principle that if the prosecution material, even if accepted in full, does not disclose the offence, the charge may be quashed, but the accused cannot insist that disputed defence documents be examined at that preliminary stage.

Conclusion: The accused was not entitled to rely on his defence documents for discharge at the stage of framing of charge.

Ratio Decidendi: At the stage of framing of charge, the Court considers only whether the prosecution material discloses a prima facie case, and ordinarily does not examine defence evidence or disputed documents to test the accused's proposed defence.

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