[Reader-list] Who is to produce detainees in courts?

[abir bazaz]

Who is to produce detainees in courts?
GK
Zahir-ud-Din

Srinagar, Mar 15: Who is to produce the detainees in the courts? The local police or their counterparts in other states where the detainees are lodged? As the debate lingers on, the release of many a detainee has been delayed.

The cases of Masarrat Alam, Muhammad Yousuf Mujahid, Muhammad Yusuf Islahi, Qazi Ahadullah, Ashraf Sehrai, Hakim Abdul Rashid, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Showket Ahmad Shah were listed for hearing on March 13. But none was produced. The cases will again come up for hearing on March 28. But the chances of their presence seem quite bleak as the police in Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the detainees are lodged are reluctant to provide the escort.

The ministry of home affairs at New Delhi way back in 1987 issued an order No V-16014/2/87-CPA.IV dated December 8, 1987 directing the state governments/ UTs "that requisite guards would need to be provided by the local police of the state /UT in whose jurisdiction the court making such an order is situated". The states/UTs were directed to implement the order in letter and in spirit. 

By virtue of this order, the state police was supposed to provide the necessary escort to the detainees on hearing days. However, the state police chose to ignore the order much to the discomfort of the languishing detainees and their worried relatives.

The matter was raised with the secretary home affairs by the parents of the detainees in 1997. The home ministry after examining the problem held, "The presence of an excessive number of under trials, remand and other un-convicted prisoners in jails has created an increasing public and professional concern about the non-observance of human rights in these institutions. The protracted detention during the pendency of investigation and trial has resulted in the overcrowding in jails. Many a time, the under trial prisoners have to languish in prison due to lukewarm response of the state/UT to provide the police escort for production of the prisoners in other state in whose jurisdiction the court has made such an order".

Accordingly, the earlier order was amended and a fresh order No V-16014/1/91-GPA.IV was issued on May 8,1997. The order reads, "The government of India, in modification to the earlier instructions on the subject has therefore decided that henceforth the police escort for transportation of the prisoners for production in the court making such order situated in another state shall be provided by the state police in whose jail the prisoner is lodged".

Notwithstanding these clear instructions of the home ministry, the states holding the detainees have failed to produce them in the courts on hearing days.

Some parents annexed the order with the court direction seeking the prisoner’s production but this did not work as well. An aggrieved parent accused the state government of sleeping over the matter. "They promised release of prisoners but backed out later. The courts would have released many prisoners had the state government ensured their production in time. But, the non-production of the prisoners is serving the interests of the state government", he said.

Pertinent to mention, the legislative assembly in its budget session last year passed a legislation banning lodgement of state subjects in outside jails. The legislation, however, could not bring the much needed respite to hundreds of detainees lodged in Jodhpur, Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as the government chose to ignore it. 

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