North East Delhi violence: Ad-hoc system of prosecution not acceptable, observes Delhi Court
Aug 13, 2022
New Delhi [India], August 13 : A Delhi court recently observed that the ad-hoc system to prosecute any case cannot be acceptable, nor can be appreciable.
The observation was made during a hearing in a North East Delhi violence-related case.
The Court has referred the matter to the Commissioner of Police for enquiry into why a regular public prosecutor was not ordered for the case.
Additional Sessions Judge Pulastya Pramachala said, "The ad-hoc system to prosecute any case cannot be acceptable, nor can be appreciable. This court has already given certain directions to prosecutors also, including the direction to obtain summons for only relevant witnesses."
The court further said that in these circumstances, the matter is referred to the Commissioner of Police to get enquired as to why a proper regular public prosecutor for this case was not ordered to date, in the backdrop of the fact that the previous prosecutor stopped appearing in the matter.
An application for framing of an additional charge for an offence punishable under Section 188 IPC was also filed.
The court in the order of August 4, noted, "However, unfortunately till date, charge for the offence under Section 188 IPC was never pressed for and it is only today that on realising this omission on the record, an application under Section 216 CrPC has been filed."
The Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) DK Bhatia informed the court that in the past some other prosecutor was taking care of this case and at present, he is just appearing for State on an ad-hoc basis without any concrete order passed by the department.
The court has directed to send the copy of the order to the Commissioner of Police for necessary compliance and appointment and regular appearance of a prosecutor in this case. The matter has been listed for August 26, 2022 for further hearing.
