Chandigarh, October 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the district and sessions judges of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to carry out surprise checks of police lock-ups to detect illegal detention. The court has even asked the registrar-general to submit a report on the visits.
Justice Rajan Gupta (of the High Court) made it clear that he also wanted complete compliance of the directives on informing the accused of the grounds of his arrest and forwarding information to the legal aid cell concerned.
Taking up criminal miscellaneous number M-15670 of 2009, Justice Gupta asserted: “On a specific query put by the court on the powers of the sessions judges to conduct surprise checks of police stations, a counsel referred to the judgment of the apex court in Sheela Barse versus State of Maharashtra and the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Amrik Singh versus State of Punjab.”
Quoting the directives in Amrik Singh case, Justice Gupta said the High Court had directed all sessions judges in the states of Punjab and Haryana that “whenever a person was arrested and taken into custody by the police without warrant, he had to be immediately informed of the grounds of his arrest…”
“When a person is arrested by the police, the police will give intimation of the facts of such
arrest to the legal aid cell of the district concerned; and whenever any illegal detention is brought to the notice of the sessions judge by any person, the sessions judge of the district shall carry out a surprise check of police lock-up to find out whether any person is detained in without being produced before the magistrate concerned in contravention of Section 57 of the CrPC and the constitutional provisions as contained in Article 22,” the directives read.
Justice Gupta said the registry was directed to communicate the directions to the police chiefs of the two states and the sessions judges of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Before parting with the order, Justice Gupta asked the state counsel to seek instructions from the authorities concerned whether the directions were being complied with in letter and spirit by the state. The case would now come up for hearing on October 27.
