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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.1800 OF 2010 (Arising out of SLP(Crl.)No.9043/2009)

SAROJ PANDEY ... APPELLANT(S)

VERSUS

STATE OF NCT OF DELHI & ANR. ... RESPONDENT(S)

O R D E R

Heard learned counsel for the parties.

Leave granted. This appeal is directed against the  judgment and final  

order dated 13.10.2009 passed by the High Court of Delhi at New  

Delhi in Writ Petition (Crl.)No.1337 of 2009. The short controversy  

which arises in this appeal is regarding examination of a suicide  

note. In the order dated 4th February, 2010, the High Court has  

observed as under :  

“In  this  view  of  the  matter,  the  Investigating  Officer  shall  obtain  the  Hindi  handwriting  of  the  deceased from the C.B.S.E. Board, if possible, and  send the admitted Hindi handwriting of the deceased  and  the  suicide  notes  for  comparison  to  the  FSL  Laboratory as expeditiously as possible.”  

Admittedly, part of the suicide note is written in English  

and part of it is written in Hindi.  Ms.Indira Jaisingh, learned  

Additional  Solicitor  General  submits  that  it  is  not  possible  to  

compare Hindi handwriting because Hindi records are not available.  

In this view of the matter, when her Hindi handwriting cannot be  

compare, it becomes imperative that whatever has been written in the  

suicide note in English has to be examined by a handwriting expert

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to ascertain whether suicide note was in the handwriting of the  

deceased.

The handwriting expert, in his opinion, has mentioned in  

his  note  that  “the  register  marked  A-4  containing  the  admitted  

English writings of deceased Pinki have not been considered in the  

examination.”   In  order  to  do  complete  justice,  we  deem  it  

appropriate that the suicide note of the deceased be sent to another  

handwriting expert and he must give a complete report of the words  

which have been mentioned in both Hindi and English. The handwriting  

expert  would  be  selected  by  the  concerned  trial  Court.  The  

handwriting  expert  must  send  the  report  to  the  trial  court  as  

expeditiously as possible, in any event, within four weeks from the  

date of communication of the order of the trial Court.    

With these observations, the impugned order is modified  

and the appeal is, accordingly, disposed of.

...................J. (DALVEER BHANDARI)

...................J. (DEEPAK VERMA)

NEW DELHI; 17TH SEPTEMBER, 2010