Will Be Difficult To Maintain Law & Order, Summoning One Police Officer Every Time For Addressing Court Queries Must Be Stopped: Delhi Court

A Delhi Court recently criticized the practice of summoning a particular police officer for addressing queries, every time a case emanating from that respective police station arises.

The order was passed by Principal District & Sessions Judge Madhu Jain of Saket Court on perusing the records which revealed that officer Ishwar Singh was summoned by the Court more than 300 times.

Singh complained that in every case emanating from his police station, instead of designated investigating officer, he is called for addressing the court queries.

“If such a practice is adopted and followed by all the courts then ti will be very difficult for the police officials to maintain law and order in their respective areas as they will be spending whole of their time in the courts. Not only this practice is to be deprecated but we must also stop this practice,” the Judge said.

The Court was hearing Singh's revision plea against the passing of adverse remarks by the Court and an order seeking explanation from the Police Commissioner on his behalf. The order was passed after Singh's subordinate failed to appear before the court on one occasion.

At this juncture, the Chief Public Prosecutor for State submitted that he has also been called in the court by the concerned Presiding Officer on several occasions, for no fault of him.

Considering the submissions, the bench referred to K.H Siraj v. High Court of Kerala (2006), wherein the Apex Court held that undesirable judicial strictures that penalize without enquiry, stigmatize without relevant proceedings with remedy of only being expunged.

In light of the above, the Court set aside the impugned order calling for the explanation from the Police Commissioner and expunged the adverse 'extra judicial remarks' with respect to the Police Officer.

Case Title: Ishwar Singh v. State

Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, Vaibhav Suri and Yash Datt appeared for the revisionist.

CPP Salim Khan appeared for the State.

Click here to download/read the order