Section 311 CrPC allows later filing of already-referred documents where needed for a just decision and no prejudice arises.

Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure permits criminal courts to receive documentary material at any stage when it is essential for a just decision. Documents already referred to in the complaint and annexures may later be placed on record without amounting to an impermissible amendment of the complaint, provided no new case is introduced and no serious prejudice is caused to the accused. The Delhi High Court treated the filing as a correction of a curable infirmity, not a change in the nature of the prosecution, and sustained the order allowing the documents to be taken on record.

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Issues: Whether documents specifically referred to in a complaint but not filed with it can later be brought on record under section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973; and whether such filing amounts to an impermissible amendment of the complaint causing prejudice to the accused.

Analysis: There is no general provision in criminal procedure equivalent to amendment of pleadings under the civil law, but criminal courts may permit correction of curable infirmities where no serious prejudice is caused. The power under section 311 is wide and is not confined to oral testimony alone; it extends to documentary material as well, if the material is essential for a just decision. The documents in question were already referred to in the complaint and annexures, and the later application was only to place those existing materials on record, not to introduce a new case or change the nature of the complaint. Since the documents were part of the factual foundation already disclosed and their production was found necessary for a fair adjudication, the order allowing their filing did not amount to an impermissible amendment.

Conclusion: The application under section 311 was rightly allowed and the challenge to that order fails.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order permitting the documents to be taken on record was sustained, and the petitions were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 permits the court to receive documentary evidence at any stage if it is essential for a just decision, and a complainant's later filing of documents already referred to in the complaint is not, by itself, an impermissible amendment where no serious prejudice is caused.

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