Delhi given time to frame witness protection policy

The Delhi High Court Monday granted four more weeks to the city government to comply with its earlier direction to frame a policy to protect witnesses from intimidation by accused in criminal cases.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru told the government to expedite the process after its standing counsel Pawan Sharma mentioned before it that more time was needed to implement the policy.

Sharma told the court that the process of implementing the policy was in process and four more weeks were required.

The court would now hear the matter Aug 8.

Observing that witnesses were "bulwarks" in a criminal case, another bench of the court May 22 directed the government to frame within 10 weeks the witness protection policy.

The bench's direction came while pronouncing the verdict where it directed prosecution of Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi and a ballistic expert for turning hostile in model Jessica Lall's murder case in 1999.

The court also referred the matter to the chief justice to treat the matter as a public interest litigation and set up a special bench to monitor the witness protection programme of the city government.