PIL In Delhi High Court Against LG Notification Allowing Recording Of Police Officials' Evidence From Police Stations

A public interest litigation has been filed in the Delhi High Court against a notification issued by the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena declaring all police stations in the national capital as “designated places” for recording deposition of police officers through video conferencing.The petition has been filed by Advocate Kapil Madan, through Advocates Gurmukh Singh Arora and Ayushi Bisht. The plea states that the Notification strikes at the very root of the right to fair trial under Article 21 of the Constitution of India by authorising prosecution witnesses, i.e., police officials, to depose from within their own official precincts.As per the plea, such an arrangement undermines the solemnity of judicial proceedings, facilitates tutoring or selective reference to departmental records and irreversibly tilts the adversarial balance in favour of the prosecution. It has been submitted that a witness deposing from his own workplace, amidst colleagues and superiors, cannot be equated to one deposing before a judicial officer in an open courtroom as the possibility of subtle influence, departmental coercion, or rehearsed testimony is inescapable.Further, the plea states that the impugned Notification, by permitting police officers to depose from their own police stations without judicial supervision violates the letter and spirit ofSection 308 of the BNSS, 2023, which requires that evidence be recorded in the presence of the accused and under the control and supervision of the Presiding Judge. It has been submitted that allowing police officers to testify from police stations creates an unacceptable risk of witness tampering, coaching, and a break in the chain of evidence as confines of their own office, a police witness can easily be tutored or coached by their superiors or colleagues. Furthermore, it has been added that if a witness needs to be confronted with physical evidence, the integrity of that evidence is immediately compromised, rendering the entire exercise futile and opening up avenues for systemic corruption and manipulation.“The Petitioner, being a practicing lawyer, has directly witnessed how fragile the balance of justice can be in criminal cases. The Notification, by tilting the scales in favour of the prosecution, will irreparably prejudice accused persons and compromise public confidence in the justice system,” the plea states. Title: Kapil Madan v. Lieutenant Governor of Delhi & Ors

PIL In Delhi High Court Against LG Notification Allowing Recording Of Police Officials' Evidence From Police Stations

Nupur Thapliyal

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