India, May 7 -- The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday took suo motu cognisance of the "copy-paste" culture among investigating officers while recording witness statements.

"The culture of copy-paste statements is dangerous and may, in certain cases unnecessarily, give advantage to the accused persons," the division bench of justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay Deshmukh said, directing the state government o frame guidelines to curb the malpractice.

The bench questioned the integrity of witness statements and wondered why witnesses were even called by the police to record their statements.

"It is high time to take cognisance of the issue suo motu and to consider, as to what are those shortcomings or difficulties for t...