Court not helpless: HC to subordinate judiciary

“The court goes on giving dates after dates, lingering the case and considering itself to be helpless, and later, feeling disgusted due to non-appearance of witnesses or non-execution of court process, closes evidence of prosecution or the accused on the grounds of the case being very old.” Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, punjab and haryana high court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 5

In a scathing indictment of the police, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted that inaction and disobedience of judicial orders on their part is plaguing the system, virtually compelling the justice delivery mechanism to remain static.

The High Court also made it clear to the subordinate judiciary in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh that the court was not helpless and it could not abdicate its function by “rendering and accepting itself to be subject to the mercy of recalcitrant witnesses or police officers”.

“At present, there are nagging problems of witnesses, particularly official and police witnesses not attending court and police officers not obeying court directions by not serving summons, executing warrants and producing documents, which plague the judicial system to such an extent that a huge number of cases remain static without any progress,” Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi asserted.

Justice Tyagi pointed out that fixing a large number of cases for evidence due to uncertainty regarding attendance of witnesses was a common practice in trial courts. Justice Tyagi noted that it would be impossible for the court to record the evidence of all of them if witnesses turned up in all such cases and as a result, a substantial number, if not the majority, would go back unexamined.

Justice Tyagi observed that fixing of such a large number of cases not only increased the workload of all concerned with issuance and execution of court process, but also caused unnecessary and avoidable harassment to witnesses who went back unexamined. Justice Tyagi maintained that it adversely affected the smooth functioning of courts and the failure of witnesses to turn up left the courts with a feeling of being relieved from work pressure.

Justice Tyagi mentioned that Judges did not get time to scrutinise whether summons and warrants of arrest were issued timely by court officials and served or executed by police officers. Justice Tyagi stated that time constraints prevented him for going into the reasons why summons and warrants of arrest were not received back or received unserved or unexecuted and he could not look at corrective measures required.

Justice Tyagi asserted that this had the undesirable effect of the court becoming complacent to non-attendance of witnesses and non-execution of court process and getting involved in a vicious circle of forced improper working. Justice Tyagi remarked that the court, at times, became a silent spectator to a trial where material witnesses did not appear for reasons best known to them.

“The court goes on giving dates after dates, lingering the case and considering itself to be helpless, and later, feeling disgusted due to non-appearance of witnesses or non-execution of court process, closes evidence of prosecution or the accused on the grounds of the case being very old,” Justice Tyagi added.