Magistrates to be sent for training if accused needlessly jailed: Supreme Court

• March 23, 2023

Strict action will be taken against the Magistrate if the accused is sent to custody unnecessarily. That is what the Supreme Court said. In the hearing of a case on Tuesday, the division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Arvind Kumar said that if the accused is sent to custody without necessity, the concerned magistrate will be exempted from the trial process and they will be sent for training.

It is the duty of the High Court to ascertain whether the clear statement of the Division Bench is following the course of law in the trial process.

According to the Supreme Court order, in many cases, the accused have been sent to jail custody even though it was not necessary. It is the duty of the High Courts to ensure that the law is properly followed in the lower courts. If any such direction is given by a Magistrate, he should be exempted from the trial process and given a departmental lesson for a few days. According to the Supreme Court, such orders are mostly issued by Uttar Pradesh courts. The apex court specifically mentioned Hathras, Ghaziabad and Lucknow courts. The division bench directed the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to look into the matter. Necessary instructions should be given and appropriate advice should also be given.

In this case, the apex court also mentioned that the court should give orders on the bail application within 2 weeks. It has also warned that the declining conviction rate should not be taken into account by the courts in granting bail.

This directive of the Supreme Court is said to be sent to all states and Union Territories within 4 months. On the other hand, the registrars of Delhi, Telangana, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand High Courts have been directed to appear before the apex court for non-submission of compliance reports. CBI was present in this case. Additional Solicitor General of CBI SV Raju said that they will inform their agency about the guidelines in this regard. The division bench demanded that not only the CBI, but all the state and central agencies should be informed about this. It may be noted that in February last, the High Court and the central agency had warned for delay in giving the status report.

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