{"id":15449,"date":"2023-10-03T05:13:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T23:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=15449"},"modified":"2025-04-03T10:52:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T05:22:23","slug":"panchnama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/panchnama\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Panchnama?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Panchnama<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The word PANCHNAMA\u00a0<strong>literally means \u201crecord of observation by five people\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>A Panchnama is a document having legal bearings that\u00a0<strong>records evidences and findings that an officer makes at the scene of an offence\/crime.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>However, it is\u00a0<strong>not only the recordings at the scene of a crime<\/strong>; it\u00a0<strong>can be anywhere that may be related to the crime\/offence<\/strong> and from where incriminating evidence is likely to be collected.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>word Panchanama is not used as such or defined particularly<\/strong> anywhere in any book of law, but the\u00a0<strong>same can be read into Section 100 under Chapter VII of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973\u00a0<\/strong>(Cr.P.C.), which\u00a0<strong>mandates an Investigating Officer to prepare PANCHNAMA.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Reason behind the word &#8220;Panchanama&#8221;:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In the\u00a0<strong>ancient judicial system in India<\/strong>, the\u00a0<strong>justice system at the lowest rung, i.e., village level,\u00a0<\/strong>which is still the case in certain kinds of issues,\u00a0<strong>was in the form of Panch, which is a group of five elected learned members of the village<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>who would preside and decide<\/strong> over a dispute amongst the villagers.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In the said system, the\u00a0<strong>proceedings before the Panch that were recorded<\/strong> on paper, were often\u00a0<strong>called a Panchanama.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>From this practice, the word was adopted<\/strong> for a document prepared by the investigating office noting facts and the proceeds of an investigation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>There are different kinds of Panchnama<\/strong> prepared during an investigation, which are\u00a0<strong>categorized as search, seizure, recovery, discovery, arrest<\/strong>, inquest, and test identification parade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Out of these, some are a part of the mandatory procedures<\/strong> laid down in different provisions of the Cr.P.C and\u00a0<strong>others are performed to the establish genuineness<\/strong> of the investigation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contents of Panchanama:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There is\u00a0<strong>no guidance or prescription about the contents<\/strong> of Panchanama\u00a0<strong>under CrPC or any other statute.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>witnesses are called &#8220;Panchas&#8221;.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is to be noted that the\u00a0<strong>Panchas are to be two or more independent and respectable persons,\u00a0<\/strong>i.e. persons who are not of disrepute.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>If there are no eyewitnesses<\/strong> to an offence and the\u00a0<strong>case is totally based on circumstantial evidence, then such a Panchanama is of immense value.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>T<\/strong>he\u00a0<strong>Panch (witness) can refresh his memories while giving evidence in the Court<\/strong> as per Section 159 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the need for the Panchanama<\/strong>?\n<ul>\n<li>It is one of the\u00a0<strong>essential parts of criminal as well as civil investigation<\/strong> procedures.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>In criminal investigation, it is used to support evidence of the investigation<\/strong> conducted at the crime scene, seizure, if any from accused, identification of the accused, etc.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>In civil cases, it is used to show that the decree has been executed<\/strong> by handing over possession of the property as directed in the decree.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The provision of the Panchanama is\u00a0<strong>made to convince the Court that the officer-in-charge has in fact carried out the investigation, search,<\/strong> or seizure or has acted\u00a0<strong>upon the directions of the Court if so directed.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is CrPC?<\/h3>\n<p>CrPC stands for the &#8220;Code of Criminal Procedure.&#8221; It is a legal code that provides a framework for the investigation, prosecution, and trial of criminal cases within India. The CrPC is a comprehensive legal document that outlines the procedures and rules that must be followed by law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, and other relevant parties involved in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livelaw.in\/supreme-court\/supreme-court-ruling-panchnamas-deemed-inadmissible-prepared-violation-section-162-crpc-239093\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Panchnama Inadmissible In Court Where Witnesses Merely Acted As Attestors And Did Not Disclose How Objects Were Discovered: Supreme Court<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Panchnama is a document having legal bearings that records evidence and findings that an officer makes at the scene of an offence\/crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}