Civil Appeal No 811 of 1979
Appeal by special leave from the Judgment and Order dated 18 12 1970 of the Allahabad High Court in Crl
Revision No 170 of 1975
O P Rana and M Ramachandran for the Appellant
Nemo for the Respondent
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHINNAPPA REDDY J
The Officer who was investigating into offences under Section 120 B 420 468 and 471 Indian Penal Code alleged against the respondent Ram Babu Misra moved the Chief Judicial Magistrate Lucknow to direct the accused to give his specimen writing for the purpose of comparison with certain disputed writings
The learned Magistrate held that he had no power to do so when the case was still under investigation
His view has been upheld by the High Court
The State has preferred this appeal by Special Leave of this Court
Shri O P Rana learned Counsel for the appellant contended that Section 73 of the Evidence Act conferred ample power on the Magistrate to direct the accused to give his specimen writing even during the course of investigation
He also urged that it would be generally in the interests of the administration of justice for the Magistrate to direct the accused to give his specimen writing when the case was still under investigation since that would enable the investigating agency not to place the accused before the Magistrate for trial or enquiry if the disputed writing as a result of comparison with the specimen writing was found not to have been made by the accused
While we agree with Mr Rana that a direction by the Magistrate to the accused to give his specimen writing when the case is still under investigation would surely be in the interests of the administration of justice we find ourselves unable to agree with his submission that section 73 of the Evidence Act enables the Magistrate to give such a direction even when the case is still under investigation
1069 Section 73 of the Evidence Act is as follows 73
In order to ascertain whether a signature writing or seal is that of the person by whom it purports to have been written or made any signature writing or seal admitted or proved to the satisfaction of the Court to have been written or made by that person may be compared with the one which is to be proved although that signature writing or seal has not been produced or proved for any other purpose
The Court may direct any person present in Court to write any words or figures for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare the words or figures so written with any words or figures alleged to have been written by such person
This section applies also with any necessary modifications to finger impressions
The second paragraph of section 73 enables the Court to direct any person present in Court to give specimen writings for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare such writings with writings alleged to have been written by such person
The clear implication of the words for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare is that there is some proceeding before the Court in which or as a consequence of which it might be necessary for the Court to compare such writings
The direction is to be given for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare  and not for the purpose of enabling the investigating or other agency to compare 
If the case is still under investigation there is no present proceeding before the Court in which or as a consequence of which it might be necessary to compare the writings
The language of section 73 does not permit a Court to give a direction to the accused to give specimen writings for anticipated necessity for comparison in a proceeding which may later be instituted in the Court
Further section 73 of the Evidence Act makes no distinction between a Civil Court and a Criminal Court
Would it be open to a person to seek the assistance of the Civil Court for a direction to some other person to give sample writing under section 73 of the Evidence Act on the plea that it would help him to decide whether to institute a civil suit in which the question would be whether certain alleged writings are those of the other person or not  Obviously not
If not why should it make any difference if the investigating agency seeks the assistance of the Court under section 73 of the Evidence Act on the plea that a case might be instituted before the Court where it would be necessary to compare the writings  1070 We may also refer here to Section 5 of the  which provides 5
If a Magistrate is satisfied that for the purposes of any investigation or proceeding under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 it is expedient to direct any person to allow his measurements or photograph to be taken he may make an order to that effect and in that case the person to whom the order relates shall be produced or shall attend at the time and place specified in the order and shall allow his measurements or photograph to be taken as the case may be by a police officer Provided that no order shall be made directing any person to be photographed except by a Magistrate of the first class Provided further that no order shall be made under this section unless the person has at some time been arrested in connection with such investigation or proceeding
Section 2a of the Act defines measurements as including finger impressions and foot print impressions
There are two things to be noticed here
First signature and writing are excluded from the range of section 5 of the and second finger impression  are included in both section 73 of the Evidence Act and section 5 of the 
A possible view is that it was thought that section 73 of the Evidence Act would not take in the stage of investigation and so section 5 of the made special provision for that stage and even while making such provision signature and writings were deliberately excluded
As we said this is a possible view but not one on which we desire to rest our conclusion
Our conclusion rests on the language of section 73 of the Evidence Act
Section 73 of the Evidence Act was considered by us in State Delhi Administration vs Pali Ram1 where we held that a Court holding an enquiry under the Criminal Procedure Code was entitled under section 73 of the Evidence Act to direct an accused person appearing before it to give his specimen handwriting to enable the Court by which he may be tried to compare it with disputed writings
The present question whether such a direction under section 73 of the Evidence Act can be given when the matter is still under investigation and there is no proceeding before the Court was expressly left open
The question was also not considered in State of Bombay vs Kathi Kalu Oghad2 1071 where the question which was actually decided was that no testimonial compulsion under article 203 of the Constitution was involved in a direction to give specimen signature and hand writing for the purpose of comparison
The view expressed by us in the earlier paragraphs on the construction of section 73 Evidence Act was the view taken by the Madras High Court in T Subbiah vs section K D Ramaswamy Nadar1 the Calcutta High Court in Farid Ahmed vs the State2 Mitter J at page 32
and Priti Ranjan Ghosh  Ors
vs The State3 the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Dharamvir Singh vs State4 the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Brij Bhushan Raghunandan Prasad vs The State5 the Orissa High Court in Srikant Rout vs State of Orissa6 and the Allahabad High Court in the judgment under appeal
A contrary view was taken by the Patna High Court in Gulzar Khan  Ors
vs State7 and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in B Rami Reddy  Ors
vs State of Andhra Pradesh8 We do not agree with the latter view
We accordingly dismiss the appeal and while doing so we would suggest the suitable legislation may be made on the analogy of section 5 of the  to provide for the investiture of Magistrates with the power to issue directions to any person including an accused person to give specimen signatures and writings
section R Appeal dismissed


Summary:
Dismissing the appeal by special leave the Court  HELD Though a direction by the Magistrate to the accused to give his specimen writing when the case is still under investigation would surely be in the interests of the administration of justice Section 73 of the Evidence Act does not enable the Magistrate to give such a direction when the case is still under investigation
1068G H The second paragraph of Section 73 enables the Court to direct any person present in Court to give specimen writings for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare such writings with writings alleged to have been written by such person
The clear implication of the words for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare is that there is some proceeding before the Court in which or as a consequence of which it might be necessary for the Court to compare such writings
The direction is to be given for the purpose of enabling the Court to compare  and not for the purpose of enabling the investigating or other agency to compare 
If the case is still under investigation there is no present proceeding before the Court in which or as a consequence of which it might be necessary to compare the writings
The language of Section 73 does not permit a Court to give a direction to the accused to give specimen writings for anticipated necessity for comparison in a proceeding which may later be instituted in the Court
1069D F ii Section 73 of the Evidence Act makes no distinction between a Civil Court and a Criminal Court
It would not be open to a person to seek the assistance of the Civil Court for a direction to some other person to give sample writing under section 73 of the Evidence Act on the plea that it would help him to decide whether to institute a civil suit in which the question would be whether certain alleged writings are those of the other person or not
That being the position it should not make any difference if the investigating agency seeks the assistance of the court under section 73 of the Evidence Act on the plea that a case might be instituted before the Court where it would be necessary to compare the writings
1069G H State Delhi Admn vs Pali Ram  and State of Bombay vs Kathi Kalu Oghad   distinguished
State of Bombay vs Kathi Kalu Oghad   T Subbaiah vs section K D Ramaswamy Nadar AIR 1970 Mad 85 Farid Ahmed vs The State AIR 1960 Cal 32 Priti Ranjan Ghosh and others vs The State 77 CWN 1068 865 Dharamvir Singh vs State  Haryana Brij Bhushan Raghunandan Pd
vs The State AIR 1957 MP 106 and Srikant Rout vs State of Orissa 1972 2 Cuttack Weekly Reporter 1332 approved
Gulzar Khan and Ors
vs State AIR 1962 Patna 255 and B Rami Reddy and Ors
vs State of AP  over ruled
The Court suggested that suitable legislation may be made on the analogy of section 5 of the Identification of Prisoners Act to provide for the investiture of Magistrates with the power to issue directions to any person including an accused person to give specimen signatures and writings