Section 175: Court's Power to Summon the Investigation File
Statutory text (Thai original)
เมื่อโจทก์สืบพยานเสร็จแล้ว ถ้าเห็นสมควรศาลมีอำนาจเรียกสำนวนการสอบสวนจากพนักงานอัยการมาเพื่อประกอบการวินิจฉัยได้
English translation
When the prosecutor has completed the examination of witnesses, the court, if it thinks fit, has the power to summon the investigation file from the public prosecutor to assist in its adjudication.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 175 gives the trial court a discretionary tool within Title 2 (Trial): once the prosecution's evidence is closed, the court may draw in the investigation file compiled during the inquiry stage to inform its findings. The Supreme Court has confirmed that using statements taken during the investigation, including from a person who gave evidence as a witness rather than as a suspect, does not offend trial procedure. It is a supplementary aid to adjudication, not a substitute for evidence properly adduced at trial.
Why this matters in practice
Litigants should know the court may reach beyond the courtroom evidence and read the entire investigation file before deciding, which can include witness statements never called at trial. For the defence this cuts both ways: helpful statements the prosecutor left out may surface, but so may unfavourable ones. Counsel should review what the investigation file contains and be ready to address it, since the court can rely on it as supporting material.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 108/2546 (2003)
After both parties have closed their evidence, the trial court may summon the investigation file to assist its adjudication under Section 175, and may weigh statements found there when assessing the reliability of a witness.
After both sides had closed their evidence, the trial court summoned the investigation file under Section 175. The Supreme Court examined that file and found a statement by a person the police had ultimately decided not to prosecute, which bore on how cautiously the injured person's testimony should be treated.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 49/2528 (1985)
The court has power to summon the investigation file under Section 175, and admitting the investigation-stage statement of a person who gave it as a witness, not as a suspect or defendant, does not offend trial procedure.
The witness had given his investigation-stage statement as a witness rather than as a suspect. The Supreme Court held the court could summon the investigation file to assist adjudication under Section 175, so the trial court's reliance on that statement as supporting material did not offend procedure.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 7 Supreme Court decisions (1968 to 2004)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 5239/2547 (2004)
- Decision 2120/2522 (1979)
- Decision 243/2511 (1968)
- Decision 108/2546 (2003)
- Decision 473/2535 (1992)
- Decision 1014/2514 (1971)
- Decision 49/2528 (1985)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
When can the court call for the police investigation file?
Under Section 175, after the prosecutor has finished examining witnesses. The court may then summon the investigation file from the public prosecutor if it sees fit, to assist its decision.
Can the court rely on statements in the investigation file?
Yes, as supporting material. The Supreme Court has held that relying on investigation-stage statements, including from a person questioned as a witness, does not breach trial procedure under Section 175.
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Criminal Procedure Code, s. 175 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Criminal Procedure Code (Thailand), s. 175. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-175/ (accessed 11 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.วิ.อ. มาตรา 175 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-175/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-175/"><p>When the prosecutor has completed the examination of witnesses, the court, if it thinks fit, has the power to summon the investigation file from the public prosecutor to assist in its adjudication.</p><footer>Criminal Procedure Code, s. 175 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-criminal-procedure-code/section-175/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.