The Jharkhand High Court will decide the fate of the then Additional Judicial Commissioner, Fast Track Court, Ranchi on Friday for conducting a shoddy trial in a murder case and punishing an innocent tribal man for life in 2005 but not taking proper steps to bring the real killer to justice.
The court has also observed that judicial officers were not following the thumb rule for conducting trials in various cases.
“Despite the steps for imparting training to judicial officers on case management, court management and effectively handling the sessions court trial, the record reveals that things have gone otherwise,” a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice Anant Bijay Singh has said.
The judgment was delivered in a case in which the High Court overturned conviction of one Kishore Kerketta in a murder case and declared him a free man on May 26 during the summer vacation this year.
Kerketta, a resident of Kundi Village of Itki block under Ranchi district, was declared innocent and a free man after he remained in jail for almost 12 years. The judgment was made public a few days ago.
“The conduct of the trial court was also not fair to the informant Karma Oraon whose wife is the victim in the case and who is waiting for the real culprit to be punished. This court takes a vow that henceforth this type of conduct of the trial court will not be repeated in future in other cases,” the Bench observed.
The incident happened on July 21, 1990 when Kishore, then 17 years old, alongwith his friend Arun Kerketta went to one Bigni Orain and asked her to serve liquor. On being denied the liquor the woman was attacked and died on the spot.
Ironically, the trial in the case dragged on for some 14 years, during which most of the evidences exhibited by the Public Prosecutors found Arun Kerketta to be the real killer. There was one mark of injury on the body of the woman. Of the prosecution witnesses, only one testified against Kishore, who struggled for 26 years to get a clean chit.
In the meantime, Arun disappeared and the police made no effort to apprehend him. The court, thereafter, split the case and pronounced the judgment on September 21, 2005 sentencing Kishore for life and declared Arun a permanent absconder. Kishore filed an appeal thereafter and sought to be enlarged on bail, but the High Court refused him bail.
In a 19-page judgment, the court has depicted vividly how trial of the present case was conducted by the Fast Track Court. “It depicts a sad picture which is established from the facts that the incident happened on 21.07.1990. Charges were framed on 19.03.1991, but the trial court’s judgment was delivered in 2005, thus dragging the trial for more than 14 years,” the Bench pointed out.
The court has sought a report from the Principal Judicial Commissioner, Ranchi vis a vis the steps taken by the court to ensure presence of Arun Kerketta as "it appears from the record that the trial court has not taken any step for securing the presence of Arun Kerketta or proceeding with his case in accordance with law." The report will be placed before the court on June 24.
"The matter might take a serious turn for taking some action against concerned judicial officer, if required, after the report is perused," the court observed.
The High Court has found it a classic example of how a shoddy trial has resulted in conviction of a tribal man, who could not afford a high-profile lawyer to plead his case. "The case records could be appropriate study materials. It will be included for framing a training curriculum for Sessions judges of Jharkhand on court management, case management," the Bench observed.
The court has also directed the judicial officers to record a short order in their own handwriting in all the cases which have gone on for five years so that the proceedings of the trial remains under the direct control of the trial judge and the case is not misdirected as happened in this case which lost its direction and continued because of the wrong recording of the order sheets.