India News | HC Asks Delhi Govt to Respond to Plea for Technological Facilities for Prosecutors

New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued notice and sought a response of the Delhi government on a plea seeking to provide adequate digital infrastructure and facilities to prosecutors saying they are employees of the State.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani said the trial courts and high court's system is one and if one of them is not working efficiently, the working of the other gets affected and the issue needs to be seen holistically.

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The court issued notice to the Delhi government on an application filed by the Delhi Prosecutors Welfare Association in a pending suo motu case concerning digitisation of the Directorate of Prosecution.

It said “prosecutors are actually employees of Delhi government” and granted time to Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Sanjay Lau to file a reply to the application.

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“In the meantime, Principal Secretary (Home) of Delhi government is directed to consider the representations made by the applicant (prosecutors association) in accordance with the law,” the bench said and listed the matter for further hearing on November 12.

In the application filed through advocate Kushal Kumar, the association said that on account of the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, the virtual system of court hearings and filings has become a part of the judicial system.

The prerequisite for an efficient virtual court environment is the availability of adequate facilities/ infrastructure which is missing in the case of public prosecutors in Delhi, it said.

The bench also directed the Principal Secretary (Law) of the Delhi government to file an affidavit to show what compliance has been made in pursuance to its earlier undertaking given to the court relating to timely filing of filing appeals/criminal leave petitions by the State.

In October 2017, the high court had directed registration of a suo motu case on delays in the filing of criminal leave petitions by the government.

In February 2018, the court had noted that the Directorate of Prosecution was yet to be computerised and directed that the task be taken up by the Delhi government on a priority basis to facilitate easy flow of information and accessibility of records.

On May 29, 2018, the court was informed by the government that the approved procedure entails the Director of Prosecution to prepare a detailed note within ten days of receipt of a copy of the order of the trial court for consideration of the Principal Secretary (Law), the Law Minister and the Lieutenant Governor (LG).

The Law Department will place the file before the Law Minister within a further ten working days who will take not more than three days to record his decision on the file, it had said, adding that the LG too will not take longer than three days to give his decision on file.

In all from start to finish, not more than 26 days would be required for a decision by the Delhi government on the filing of either criminal leave petitions or appeals against the judgment of a trial court. The government had told the high court.

On Tuesday, the high court said the purpose of these proceedings is to ensure that the process of filing an appeal is not belated and the process of functioning is efficient.

“The matter is of 2017 so we want to know how far you have reached,” it said.

The bench further directed the Principal Secretary (Law) of the Delhi government to give data concerning the compliance of timeline, given in May 2018, for filing appeals or criminal leave petitions before the high court from September 1.

The prosecutors association had earlier said the prosecutors lacked sufficient infrastructure to run their offices during the pandemic which resulted in virtual proceedings and it would be necessary to give them appropriate equipment to be able to run a digital office.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)