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Do your job, don’t criticise us: SC tells Centre on prison reforms case
The Supeme court had observed that delays in receiving forensic reports forced criminal cases to drag on for years.
The Supreme Court, hearing an ongoing case on delays in prison reforms, on Thursday told off the government for the slow pace of criminal trials that was often blamed on the judiciary. “You don’t perform your job but you always criticise judiciary for delay in Justice,” Justice Madan B Lokur told the government’s law officer Aman Lekhi.
In its previous hearing, the Centre had informed the court about the large number of vacancies in the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory (CFSL) and the state forensic labs.
“It’s very strange. Tell your people (Centre) stop criticising judicial system as they are not doing their job,” the court observed today.
As directed by the court during its previous hearing, the Centre was supposed to submit a report on the steps it had taken to fill up the vacancies.
On November 23, during the hearing, the court had been informed that 40 per cent posts in forensic labs were lying vacant.
The matter had come up for hearing after deficiencies in jails were highlighted by two apex court judges during their visit to Faridabad jail and an observation home in June this year.
The court had observed that delays in receiving forensic reports forced criminal cases to drag on for years.
As per the affidavit submitted by the government last week, there are six Central Forensic Science Laboratories -- in Bhopal, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune. Of the sanctioned strength of 450, as many as 164 posts are lying vacant. At the Delhi forensic lab alone, 67 posts are vacant. Thirty-one units operate under state forensic laboratories where 3,685 appointments are yet to be made. The sanctioned strength is 7,582.
