MP High Court Raps State Police Dept. For Its Failure To Execute Summons, Warrants Issued Against Police Personnel

The Madhya Pradesh High Court (Gwalior Bench) on Wednesday rapped the State Police department for its failure to execute bailable warrants/warrants of arrest issued against its own police personnel.

Essentially, the Court was dealing with the bail application filed by one Gaurav Yadav, charged for robbery (Section 392 IPC) who has been behind the bars for more than four years as the trial in the matter couldn't come to an end due to the non-appearance of the prosecution witnesses, including two policemen.

Persuing the order sheets of the Trial court, the Bench of Justice G. S. Ahluwalia noted that despite the issuance of summons/bailable warrants/arrest warrants to seek the presence of the witnesses [Naresh Sharma, ASI T.D. Shukla and Town Inspector Jang Bahadur Singh], they didn't appear before the Court, that too, after being given several chances to them.

Further, on July 28, 2021, when the case was fixed for examination of prosecution witnesses, a bailable warrant of arrest was issued against Naresh Sharma and a warrant of arrest was issued against Jang Bahadur, however, again on August 7, 2021, they did not appear before the Court.

Under these circumstances, the Court said that it was left with no other option but to release the applicant on bail and accordingly, the applicant was directed to be released on bail on the following condition:

"...the applicant shall be released on bail on furnishing cash surety of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lack Only) or in the alternative on depositing original title-deed(s) [not Rin Pustika] of the immovable property worth of more than the said amount."

However, before parting with this order, the Court expressed its anguish on the non-execution of bailable warrants as well as warrants issued against the police personnel themselves and underscored that the Police Department only was responsible for the release of the applicant in the instant case.

Further, stressing that the Police Department must realize that speedy trial is the fundamental right of an accused and that it is high time when the Police Department must introspect the negligence of its own police officers., the court added thus:

"The Police Department cannot take a defence that they were not in a position to trace out their own police personnel who are either in service or who might have retired. Even if a person has retired, still he must be receiving a pension and, therefore, the Police Department must be aware of his latest address. Non-execution of summons / bailable warrants/warrants simply indicates that the Police Department is not concerned about the fundamental rights of the citizen of the country as well as in adjudication of trials and in spite of various orders passed by this Court as well as the circulars issued by the Police Department, the District Police, Morena is not interested at all in compliance thereof."

Importantly, the Court called it shocking that in spite of the circulars issued by the Police Headquarter dated 30/3/2019 and 3/4/2019 with regard to continuous monitoring of summons / bailable warrants/warrants which are being issued against the police witnesses, the ground staff was not ready to comply with the said circulars.

Accordingly, the Director General of Police, State of M.P., Bhopal was directed to look into the matter and to take serious departmental actions against those erring police officers who miserably failed in complying with the said circulars.

Case title - Gaurav Yadav Vs. State of M.P.

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