With the UPA Government having maintained complete silence over a PIl to fast track trials of influential public functionaries during its 10-year rule, the Supreme Court has now put the onus on the NDA dispensation to spell out a remedy.
The apex bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and MY Eqbal recently told the Centre to respond on the issue within four weeks as it felt that a matter of such importance should not be kept pending further.
The PIl filed by advocate VK Ohri in year 2004 was listed 16 times and not once did the Centre come forward with a response. As the petition sought guidelines to fast-track trials against politicians and influential public functionaries, the Court even consulted the law Commission of India to study the subject and make recommendations.
The Commission’s report of March 2012 backed the PIl and suggested measures for both police and courts to achieve the desired end, yet the Centre was non-committal. On November 12, 2013, the Court decided to bring all States on board and sought their response to the law Commission’s findings. This was perhaps the first time that a Commission’s report instead of being tabled and debated in Parliament was getting implemented through Court. By the time the responses arrived, the UPA II Government was on its way out.
last week, Solicitor General Ranjeet Kumar appeared in the case and informed the Court that the Centre was interested to file a response. This came as a welcome change. The petitioner’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan pointed out that the petition highlighted an “endemic” problem in the justice delivery system where if the case involved an influential politician or public servant either the investigation will not be completed and if completed, the trial will be delayed.
The petition had cited the criminal case against former Union Minister Shibu Soren as an illustration to prove its point. Soren was booked for inciting a mob in 1975 that led to killing of 11 persons of Chirudih village in Jharkhand (erstwhile part of Bihar). Despite evidence on record of a dying person who named Soren, the police filed the charge sheet in year 1982. The trial took 16 years and finally in 2008, Soren was acquitted as witnesses had died during the pendency of trial.
Even the law Commission had highlighted the fact that pendency defeats the purpose of criminal justice administration as politicians and public functionaries wield influence over police and witnesses. The petitioner submitted 11 suggestions for consideration by states and Centre that demanded trial of all “influential persons” to be monitored by the designated judge of the concerned High Court. Bhushan even recommended each High Court to have a cell to collect information on cases involving influential persons in trial courts that could be regularly monitored.