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To fix witnesses’ no-show in courts, Punjab, Haryana for nodal agencies
‘APPRISE HIGH COURT’ Say will set up agencies at district as well as state level; Chandigarh administration says it already has one in place
The Punjab and Haryana governments on Wednesday told the high court that they will set up nodal agencies at the district and the state level to deal with the problem of non-appearance of witnesses, especially cops, in trial courts.
The submissions in this connection were made during the resumed hearing of a petition in which director generals of police (DGPs), home secretaries and prosecution directors of the two states and the Chandigarh administration were summoned by the high court. All of them were present during the hearing.
They were summoned on December 4 with a concrete scheme to ensure that a proper and timely conduct of trials could be ensured and further official witnesses as well as private persons appear as and when required by the courts. The HC had then observed that even bailable and non-bailable warrants against the witnesses were not executed by the officials concerned and in the case the warrants were against the cops, the police were found ‘hundred percent’ lacking in execution of such warrants.
Punjab told the court that it will have two nodal agencies for the purpose. The district nodal agencies will be headed by local superintendent police (SP) with district attorney (DA) and deputy superintendent of police (summons staff) as members. It will ensure availability of production of official witnesses and the agency will bring to the notice of state agency if any officer is found negligent. There will be provision of departmental action, in case of laxity by the summoning branch.
As of the state nodal agency it will be headed by inspector general (litigation) with joint director prosecution and inspector general of police/superintendent of police (crime) as members. It will ensure execution of warrants to senior officers besides reviewing the work of the district nodal agency. It will hold time-to-time review meetings.
Of the summons served in 90% of the cases, witnesses did not appear in 23%, says a report filed by Punjab.
The report says in 2019 pending summons were 27,737 while 6,11,277 fresh summons were received. Of this, 5,76,511 summons were served and 62,503 were pending. The report says 4,065 bailable warrants were pending at the beginning of 2019, and 93,297 fresh bailable warrants were issued.
In 92% cases, bailable warrants were served but appearance was only in 79% of cases.
As of non-bailable warrants, a total of 1,002 were pending at the beginning of 2019 and 24,903 were issued throughout the year but only 86% were served in which witnesses’ presence was ensured.
Haryana said the district-level nodal agency would be headed by the SP concerned with DA and DSP (headquarters) as members. The agency will coordinate with the DA office and witnesses. It will have monthly meetings with the state-level nodal agency, headed by additional director general of police (law and order) with additional director (headquarters) and additional inspector general (administration) as members, the court was told. It will review working of district-level nodal agencies and a monthly report will also go to home secretary.
The state submitted in court the data for November 2019, saying 52,636 summons were issued against police officers in November 2019 and 56,718 against non-police personnel.
Of this, 80% were served in the case of police and 73% in the cases of non-police. As many as 51% cops and 47% non-police officers appeared in courts, it was submitted.
The courts could only examine 23% police and 27% non- police witnesses.
The Chandigarh administration told the high court that it already had a nodal agency in place and would try and strengthen it. It, however, did not produce any data.
