New Delhi: Judicial officers should be more “circumspect” while passing remarks against police officials, observed a district and sessions judge while setting aside a chief metropolitan judge’s order summoning a senior Delhi Police officer.
The observations by the District and Sessions Judge Madhu Jain Saturday came on a revision petition filed by a station house officer (SHO) questioning a magistrate’s order that directed his personal presence in a case.
The SHO was called to assist the court after the investigating officer had failed to appear in the case.
In the case at hand, the SHO of the Badarpur Police Station was, according to the order, “summoned not once or twice but about more than 300 times”. The metropolitan court had even called in the commissioner of police, Delhi, for explanations on the case, the order mentioned.
Speaking to ThePrint, the SHO’s lawyer, Tanvir Ahmed Mir, said that the summoning order disrupted his daily policing duties and became a hindrance in the maintenance of law and order in the concerned region. Thereafter, the SHO sought special permission from the Delhi police commissioner to file a revision petition via a private counsel.
The order shows that the magistrate’s order had also made some “extra-judicial remarks” against the officer which threatened to hamper his reputation. The officer had also said that he was being summoned often and that his subordinate officer could have resolved the court’s query.
According to the order, the revision petition mentioned that the SHO had never received any strictures or any adverse remarks from the court “in his entire career” and merely because the investigating officer in the case did not appear on the summons of the court did not give the court any reason to pass remarks against the officer or to call for an explanation from the Delhi police commissioner.
Setting aside the chief metropolitan judge’s order, Madhu Jain discouraged judicial officers from making extra-judicial remarks regarding police officials, and said: “If such a practice is adopted and followed by all the courts then it will be very difficult for the police officials to maintain law and order in their respective areas as they will be spending the whole of their time in the courts. Not only is this practice to be deprecated but we must also stop this practice.”
She added that Police officials are also obligated to discharge field duties apart from assisting courts in criminal trials and highlighted that courts must strive to achieve a balance and resolve these issues in a much more conciliatory manner.
While relying on various judgments by higher courts, the judge said that a judicial officer, while administering justice should act judicially and not overstep the line of discretion granted to him while expressing views.
The order said that judicial power given to the court of law in India comes with the utmost responsibility towards the protection of the rights of citizens and judicial remarks passed against anyone should be done with utmost circumscription.
It also mentioned the ways in which a judge shall deal with the unsatisfactory behaviour of law enforcement agencies and said that instead of taking actions directly against senior officials, the court should record the lapses that occurred during their investigation or duty.
(Harkirt Singh is a second year undergraduate student at Jindal Global Law School and an intern at ThePrint.)
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