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UP govt empowers DMs to initiate withdrawal of cases
The development came amid reports that the state government may soon move the special MP/MLA court to seek its permission for withdrawal from prosecution against BJP leaders Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana and Sanjiv Baliyan.
The state law and justice department on Thursday issued an order empowering district magistrates to initiate the process to withdraw cases in their respective districts.
The development came amid reports that the state government may soon move the special MP/MLA court to seek its permission for withdrawal from prosecution against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana and Sanjiv Baliyan who are among those accused of the September 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots,
Minister for law and justice Brijesh Pathak said usually the state government forwards the application for withdrawal of cases against a person to the district magistrates. But now the district magistrates had been authorised to withdraw cases in the respective districts, he said.
The DM’s report will be placed before a two- member committee of the principal secretary, Home, and the principal secretary, Law. The committee, in turn, will forward its recommendation to the law minister.
“Once the state government gives its approval for the withdrawal of the case, the public prosecutor will move a petition in the district court,” Pathak said.
The state government has already issued orders for withdrawal of political cases registered against political leaders, legislators and ministers in the state under the Uttar Pradesh Criminal Law (Composition of Offences and Abatement of Trials) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by the legislative assembly.
Pathak said politically motivated cases, not heinous crime cases, but will be withdrawn.
The state government had initiated the process for the withdrawal of cases largely pertaining to demonstration and violation of the prohibitory orders, he said. Disposal of such cases proved time consuming for courts as the witness were hardly available and a lot of time and energy was wasted.
The cases filed against innocent people for political reasons were also being withdrawn, he said.
“The main motive is reducing the burden on the courts, where a large number of cases are pending. It’s a serious issue. We will definitely withdraw cases that certainly were filed on extraneous considerations,” he said.
Pathak further said the state government had started the process for computerisation and digitisation of courts.
Scanning 42 crore pages of various court orders was continuing so that litigants could access court orders with ease, he said.
The law department had also decided to appoint extra judges in the Narcotics Drug sand Psychotropic Substances (NDPS Act) court, he said.
