Maha govt pays no heed to SC order

CONTEMPT CHARGE? Apex Court had asked states to examine all acquittals & list reasons why prosecution had failed to prove its cases

The Allahabad High Court recently acquitted the Talwar couple, who were convicted by a special court nearly three years ago in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case. The Talwars’ acquittal has put the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in the dock with its cases being junked by the High Court. This acquittal that made the headlines recently, has left the question of “Who killed Arushi?” unanswered. The HC literally rejected the prosecution’s case as well as the judgement of the special court that covicted the couple.

All this has once again kicked up the debate on the “credibility of the prosection” in proving its case and ensuring conviction of accused. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had in 2014 issued certain directions to all state governments to examine the orders of all acquittals. The apex court had specifically asked all the states to list down the reasons why the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

The SC had said, “Every acquittal should be understood as the failure of justice delivery system. Also, every acquittal should ordinarily lead to the inference that an innocent person was wrongfully convicted. It is therefore essential that every State must have a procedural mechanism in place, which would ensure that the cause of justice is served.”

It has been nearly three years now and it would be no wrong to say that the directives of the apex court has fallen on deaf ears in Maharashtra. This can be said so, as there is no clarity if such a mechanism is in place yet. Also the government's authorities have chosen to keep mum on the questions as to if any steps have been taken by them to conform to the SC orders.

This came to light after an activist approached the Maharashtra government’s Home Department seeking details of such mechanism. However, the government paid no heed to his query.

According to activist Ganesh Nakhate’s advocate Rajeshwar Panchal, the government has not given any positive response to his client’s query. This “no response” has resulted in a presumption that the government has not done anything in this issue.

Panchal said, “If the direction of the Apex Court is complied with by setting up a Standing Committee consisting of Superior Police Officers and Officers from Prosecution Department, then the lapses deliberately left by investigating officers to save the criminal or deliberate false implication of innocent persons, would be examined and necessary action will be taken. The apex court clearly held that every acquittal is failure of justice in the sense that either an offender is walking free or if person walking free is not an offender then necessarily he must be an innocent person who was falsely implicated. But the State of Maharashtra has not apparently complied therewith as is evident from the fact despite the Order of State Information Commission, the State couldnt provide the details of the Standing Committee, so far. Legal Notice issued by us to the government, too ramained unattended.”

“The net effect of implimenting the direction of SC would be to infuse a sense of responsibility in the minds police and fear of being held liable. This will deter them from falsely implicating any poor innocent and from leaving deliberate lapses to save mighty criminals,” Panchal added.

The claims and contentions of Panchal and his client Nakhate can be accepted, given the fact that the Maharashtra government has not responded on this yet. Despite several attempts made to contact Sudhir Shrivastava, the additional chief secretary, home department, he was unavailable for comments.

Now, with no other option left, Nakhate is mulling dragging the government to the Bombay High Court seeking directions to comply with the SC orders. Accordingly, he is likely to file a PIL in the HC seeking appropriate reliefs.

Meanwhile, according to data available on net, in the year 2014, out of 13 lakh odd tried cases only six lakh cases saw conviction.