Take Action Against Officers Flouting Guidelines For Speedy Trial In NDPS Cases: Punjab & Haryana High Court To State

Taking note of the lackadaisical approach of police officials and prolonged trials, the Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that the State administration should ensure strict action against the officials not complying with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for speedy trial of cases, especially cases under the NDPS Act.

Justice Arun Monga said,

“Having perused the contents of the affidavit as well as the Standard Operating Procedure formulated by the State and, seeing the follow up action, this Court sanguinely hopes that State in all earnestness will implement and enforce its aforesaid guidelines. In case of failure of compliance thereof, it shall ensure that action is taken against the erring officials to the logical conclusion, so that same acts as a deterrent in future for those, who do not comply with the guidelines.”

It further said that a copy of the SOP must be circulated to all the Judges in the District Judiciary Punjab, Haryana, as well as Chandigarh, with a request to all presiding officers, that in case of non-appearance of an erring official in the Court, who is a prosecution witness, they shall also pass appropriate orders and take steps to ensure that action is taken by the department against such officials in terms of the Standard Operating Procedure.

These observations came in response to the batch of three bail pleas in NDPS cases wherein the Court noted that the undertrials languished in the jails for a long period.

AAG Aman Pal pointed out that a general decision was taken for the effective administration of the criminal law justice as well as to obviate any delays on the part of the prosecution for non-production or appearance of the prosecution witnesses, who are generally the government officials and take appropriate strict measures in case, despite the Court summons, they fail to appear.

A circular was issued in February to all the Commissioners of Police in the various Commissionerate in the State of Punjab and the Senior Superintendents of Police in the other districts, where they were asked to ensure compliance with the SOP containing guidelines to ensure speedy trials, especially of NDPS cases, which was formulated in 2022, the Court further noted.

Vinod Ghai, Advocate General of Punjab submitted that with circulation of SOP action taken report was sought from every district and Commissionerate.

The State also submitted that from March to July 2023 over 232,762 police officials have not appeared, who were summoned as prosecution witnesses. Whereas, 6,572 police officials did not appear after issuing bailable warrants and 779 officials did not turn up even after issuing non-bailable warrants.

Taking note of the submissions,  the Court directed that strict action against erring officers must be taken in case of non-compliance with the SOP. The bail pleas were also granted with the direction for speedy trials and that the trial Court should keep in mind the Standard Operating Procedure.

Case Title: Jagjit Singh @ Jaggi v. State of Punjab

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (PH) 160

Appearance: Davinder Bir Singh, Advocate for petitioner In CRM-M-22271-2023.

Kushagra Mahajan, Advocate, For the petitioner in CRM-M-37804-2023.

Vinod Ghai, Advocate General, Punjab with Aman Pal, Additional Advocate General, Punjab, Mr. Dhruv Dayal, Additional A.G., Punjab and Guramrit Kaur, DAG, Punjab.

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