NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said that the chargesheets are not public documents and the investigating agencies cannot be directed to publish them on the website. The judgment came on a plea filed by RTI activist and mediaperson Saurav Das demanding that the chargesheets be published on the website of the investigating agencies. The verdict was delivered by a bench comprising Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar.

The bench pointed out that the verdict passed by the Supreme Court in the Youth Bar Association case that the FIR of cases other than rape and sexual assault should be published on the website within 24 hours cannot be extended to other cases. The FIRs were directed to be publicly uploaded so that innocent accused are not harassed and they are able to get the relief from courts.

"It may as such, violate the rights of the accused as well as the victim and/or even the investigation agency. Putting the FIR on the website cannot be equated with putting the charge sheets on public", the bench noted in the order.