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CHAPTER 1
Practice in the trial of Criminal Cases
PART G -- MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS IN
CONNECTION WITH INQUIRIES AND TRIALS
1. Age of accused persons, complainants and witnesses to be
carefully considered when the point is material.
In criminal cases, in which the age of an accused person, complainant or witnesses, is
material to the matter in issue, or is likely to affect the sentence, the Court should
record a careful finding as to probable age of such accused person, complainant or
witness, and should refer to, and comment on, any discrepancies which there may be in the
evidence on the point. In cases of doubt, **[the birth entry should be
obtained], or in its absence, the opinion of a medical officer should be taken. The age of
the accused as found or believed by the Court should be invariably stated in the judgment.
A careful statement of the probable age of the accused is especially necessary in murder
cases in which the person charged is a youth or is very advanced in years. But in every
case in which a charge is framed the accused should, at the opening of his examination, be
required to state his age; and in all cases in which the age of the accused appears to the
Court to be under twenty or over fifty years, or to be material for any special reason,
the *[Court] should add a note expressing his own opinion as to the probable
age of the accused.
Note: ***[Omitted]
2. Medical examination of persons for purposes of evidence.
Neither the complainant, nor a witness, nor an accused person can be compelled to
submit to medical examination for the purposes of evidence. A criminal Court has by law no
power to order any person, whether male or female, to be subjected to medical examination,
though, where the consent of the person to be examined (or, in the case of a minor, of his
or her lawful guardian) has been obtained, such examination may be authorised. The
practice of ordering the medical examination of a woman who has complained of an offence
against her virtue is illegal without her consent.
3. ***[Omitted].
4. ***[Omitted].
5. Exhibits.--(i) Sessions Judges and Magistrates should ordinarily pass orders
under section 517(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the disposal of exhibits on the
conclusion of the trial. The time at which such an order is to be carried out is governed
by subsections (3) and (4) of section 517 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The order
remains in force unless it is modified, altered or annulled under section 520 of the Code
of Criminal Procedure. If such orders are made on the conclusion of the trial, the
inconvenience of giving directions at a later time, when the matter is no longer fresh in
the mind of the Court, and the possibility of a legal difficulty in making orders long
after the conclusion of the trial will be avoided.
(ii) ***[...] In respect to magisterial cases, exhibits, other than
documentary exhibits, should not be sent to the High Court, unless the High Court calls
for them, or unless the Magistrate considers that a particular exhibit will be required in
the High Court, in which case he should record a note at the foot of his judgment that the
exhibit should be forwarded to the High Court in the event of an appeal or revision to the
High Court.]
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