Prosecutor absent for 10 months after chargesheet, fine imposed

New Delhi: Noting that one of the Special Public Prosecutors appointed for cases related to the north-east Delhi riots last year had been absent from hearings for 10 months in one of the cases and had not appeared in court even once since the chargesheet was filed, a local court here has imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on the State, directing the Commissioner of Delhi Police to fix responsibility for such oversight.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 after an adjournment request was made during a hearing in a riots case due to the unavailability of the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP). The court was slated to hear the arguments on charges.

The judge, while allowing the request for adjournment, said the SPP had not appeared even once since the date of filing of the charge sheet in the case on January 30, 2021. Request for adjournment is allowed subject to cost of Rs 3,000 to be deposited by the State in the court, he stated in an order dated December 10.

"This court is not oblivious of the fact that the burden of the cost shall fall on the public exchequer and hence I deem it appropriate to direct the Commissioner of Police Delhi to conduct an inquiry for fixing the responsibility for the imposition of the cost and to order to deduction of same from the salary of the person responsible," the judge added.

CMM Garg further directed the copy of the court's order to be sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast district) as well as the Police Commissioner with a direction to ensure the presence of the prosecutor.

Significantly, a day before this order, another court designated to hear the riots cases expressed concern over the fact that several cases in these matters were being regularly delayed to absentee prosecutors. It had directed the Delhi Police to appoint more prosecutors to represent the State.

This is the state of affairs with regards to these riot cases, which are very sensitive in nature and for which this special court was set up. These cases were assigned to a panel of special PPs formed by the police so as to ensure proper and effective prosecution, Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat had said.

He added that the special PPs to whom the cases are assigned do not appear in the court in several cases on account of which cases have to be adjourned without conducting any proceedings thereby resulting in the delay of their disposal.

Importantly, in a first, the Delhi Police and the Centre have decided to appoint their prosecutors in cases related to the riots and those related to the Republic Day violence during the farmer agitation. The Delhi government has vehemently contested this call in courts, arguing that it is against the principles of natural justice for the investigating agency to appoint its own prosecutors.

The Delhi government's challenge to the decision on appointing special public prosecutors is pending in the Delhi High Court. The Centre has insisted that it needs to press on with the use of Special Public Prosecutors. Despite this, a local court had recently called out the police for lack of coordination between investigating officers and their prosecutors.

However, the court recently noted that the coordination efforts had been improved in recent months.