"Stop Salaries Of Prosecutor, IO Till Witnesses Are Examined": PH High Court Slams Prosecution's 'Casual' Approach In A POCSO Trial

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently issued a direction to stop the salary of a public prosecutor and an investigating officer (IO) after it noted that the prosecution had been 'casual' in their approach to conducting the trial in a POCSO Case.

"Since the Public Prosecutor and the Investigating Officer of the case have not performed their duties with due promptitude, therefore, they deserve to be put under some coercive conditions so as to compel them to complete the process of the trial as soon as possible. Accordingly, it is ordered that the payment of salary to the Public Prosecutor, who is conducting this case, as well as the salary of the Investigating Officer of the case, shall remain stayed till all the prosecution witnesses are examined before the Court in the case," the bench of Justice Rajbir Sehrawat observed as it granted bail to accused pending trial.

The Court was essentially hearing a regular bail plea filed by an Accused named Bunty booked under Sections 363, 366-A, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The Court noted that the prosecution witnesses were not being produced despite the fact that about 04 years have passed since the registration of the FIR.

The Court was also told that during the trial of the case, the prosecutrix had been partly examined in examination-in-chief and no other witness had been examined by the prosecution. Thereafter, the Public Prosecutor had expressed his inclination to move an application under Section 319 Cr.P.C. so as to array an additional accused.

In view of this, noting that the petitioner/accused has already been in custody for more than four years in this case and despite that, not even a single witness has been examined by the prosecution so far, the Court stressed that the liberty of the petitioner cannot be jeopardized by the casualness of the prosecution, particularly, when the allegations are that the prosecutrix had gone with the petitioner and remained with him for full one week; during which she visited several places and stayed in Hotels.

"Even if the petitioner is guilty, that has to be so held by a court of law by conducting Trial in right earnest and due promptitude. However, the prosecution has abjectly failed in doing its duty of conducting prosecution proceedings appropriately. At this stage, the petitioner is not required for any investigation purpose. He cannot be forced to suffer incarceration without any effective proceedings being conducted against him by the Court," the Court further remarked as it granted bail to the accsued pending trial.

Further, emphasizing that the Public Prosecutor and the Investigating Officer of the case have not performed their duties with due promptitude, the Court ordered that the salary of the IO and PP shall remain stayed till all the prosecution witnesses are examined before the Court in the case. 

In this regard, the Director (Prosecution), Punjab, and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Hoshiarpur were directed to send a report qua stopping the salaries of these two officers on or before October 15, 2022.

Case title - Bunty v. State of Punjab

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