Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Written statement in place of examination under Section 342 Cr.P.C. - Examina- tion of the accused under Section 342 is essential even in summary trials. Where no question has been put to the accused under Section 342 for explaining the circumstance in the case from which an offence can be said to have been made out the defect is material in the trial. The practice of filing written statement has been strongly discountenanced and severely condemned pernicious as by the Courts of this country. The written statement is evolved out of the brains of the counsel, helped by the friends of the accused and the practice has been uniformly deprecated. Where the accused, when he was being orally examined-under Section 342, replied to all questions, except one, by saying 'I will file a written statement, it cannot be said that the written statement represented the mind of the accused or the facts as where known to him.