Sukhwant Singh v. State of Punjab (1995) 3 SCC 367

Section 138 envisages that a witness would first be examined-in-chief and then subjected to cross-examination and for seeking any clarification, the witness may be re-examined by the prosecution. There is, in our opinion, no meaning in tendering a witness for cross examination. Tendering of a witness for cross examination, as a matter of fact, amounts to giving up of the witness by the prosecution as it does not choose to examine him in-chief.