Criminal justice system cannot be left at mercy of police dept, says HC

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has pulled up the city police over non-appearance of its investigating officers before the court in criminal matters, saying that the criminal justice machinery cannot be left at the mercy of the department and its officials, due to whose negligence, cases are kept in abeyance.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh termed the “delinquency” on the part of police officers as most unfortunate, and said that it must be dealt with strictly.

“It is observed by this court that the concerned Investigating Officer (IO) are avoiding appearance before the court. The criminal justice machinery cannot be left at the mercy of the department and its officials where due to their negligence, cases are kept in abeyance and the entire machinery comes to a standstill,” the court said in an order of February 8.

The order came on a petition that sought quashing of a first information report (FIR) registered under domestic violence and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), at Nabi Karim police station,

During the course of hearing on February 8, while the other parties appeared through video conferencing, no police officer attended on the first call.

Accordingly, the case was passed over and on second call, a sub-inspector from the police station posted at the same police station appeared, who when asked by the additional public prosecutor (APP), stated that the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case concerned was not available. Accordingly, the APP informed the court that he had telephonically directed the additional station house officer (SHO) to appear in the matter but despite the said direction, he chose not to appear before the court. Following this, the court directed the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) concerned to file an affidavit along with the written explanation by the officer concerned within 10 days.

“The court is left with no other option but to direct the DCP (Central) to personally look into the matter and seek written explanation from the concerned officer for his non-appearance in the matter today despite the instructions given by learned APP,” the judge said.

The matter will now be heard on February 24.