Cr.Appeal No.62 of 1996 28.7.2010 Present: S/Shri Rajesh Mandhotra and Vikas Rathour, Dy.A.Gs for the appellant. Mr.Kartar Singh, counsel for the respondent. Affidavit of the Principal Secretary (Home) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh perused. We have also gone through the record of the Inspector General of Police who conducted the enquiry. In our view, the Inquiry Officer has been rather lenient in the matter but since this case relates to disposal of case property which took place a long time back and under directions of the Director General of Police, we do not propose to take any further action. We may however, make it clear that the Principal Secretary (Home) as well as the Director General of Police should issue instructions to all concerned that no case property lying in the Malkhana(s) should be destroyed unless the case has been finally disposed of. The case property has to be disposed of in accordance with the directions of the Court and it is not the police who has to give directions for disposing of the property which is “case property”. Another aspect of the matter which we would like to highlight is that in this case, two cassettes which were case property were destroyed. Even the transcripts of the recordings of these cassettes were not placed on record. We would direct the Principal Secretary (Home) and the Director General of Police to issue directions in such like cases where there are video or audio recordings to ensure that the copies are prepared both digitally and otherwise so that these are placed before the Court and in case the case property is destroyed like in the present case, there is something else to fall back in the Court. These directions are being issued since the original CD, DVD or other recording material may get corrupted or destroyed over period of time especially due to the lack of space in the Malkhana(s). The matter is closed with these directions. The Registrar General is directed to send a copy of this order to the Principal Secretary (Home) to the Govt. of H.P as well as to the Director General of Police for further compliance. (Deepak Gupta), Judge July 28, 2010(m) (Sanjay Karol), Judge