Court shootout exposes insufficient security measures

One police officer was shot dead and a trial court judge barely escaped with his life in a broad daylight shootout at the Delhi’s Karkardooma district court on Wednesday, thereby exposing the lax security of the judicial premises in the Capital in the process.

It’s not only Karkardooma court but the security arrangements in most of the district courts are appalling. A visit to the high profile Dwarka and Saket district courts revealed the abysmal security scenario. The metal detectors were lying dysfunctional and the manual security checks were practically no deterrence to anybody who wants to carry arms inside the court premises.

Subhash Tanwar, an ex-office bearer of the Saket Bar Council, attested the safety cracks and said: “The court’s entry points are guarded by door-frame metal detectors, but they do not work. A willing public as well as a heavily armed terrorist could walk through them and no alarms would go off.”

“Hapless security arrangements in all the six district court complexes have once again come to the forefront. The lives of those who come to the courts everyday are jeopardised because of the gaps in the security arrangements,” Vinod Sharma, ex-president of Saket Bar Council Association said.

“The procedure of properly frisking the visitors who come to the court entry gates should be opened at least two-hours before the cause list time,” advocate Sharma added.

An on-duty Delhi Police official said: “Incidents of accused brandishing knives and pistols in the trial courts are not unheard of, but shootout in a courtroom when the daily business was being carried out has uncovered the lack of safety in court premises.”

However, on asked about the safety measures of the Dwarka court, the officer said: “In terms of security arrangements, the newly built Dwarka, Saket and Rohini courts are comparatively in a better situation. In stark contrast, Karkardooma and Teeshjari courts do not even have a formal security check system installed.”

The September 7, 2011 explosion in which 11 people were killed at the Delhi high court has not changed the scenario in the trial courts where security is still a concern,” VK Singh, an advocate said.

Singh added: “Government should ensure that no such incident happens in the future and strict action should be taken against the offenders in this case.”