Allahabad High Court has expressed "shock" over the fact that accused in more than six lakh criminal cases across Uttar Pradesh have not been produced before the concerned trial courts even after filing of charge-sheets and directed the police to "ensure" their appearance.
A Division Bench comprising justices Amar Saran and Dinesh Gupta also asked the lower courts not to accept charge sheets "unless accused are produced".
The court directed UP's Director General of Police and Principal Secretary (Home) to ensure the presence of the accused in respective trial courts within three months.
The Bench noted with dismay in an order dated May 24, "in as many as 6,20,104 (six lakh, twenty thousand, one hundred and four) cases, the accused have not been arrested after submission of reports under section 173(2) CrPC".
Perusing a tabular chart prepared by the High Court registry "on the basis of information furnished by District Judges from 71 districts", which showed that in many cases accused had not appeared before trial courts for periods as long as "more than two years", the Bench remarked "these figures shock the conscience of the court".
Directing the Principal Secretary (Home) and the DGP to ensure that accused in all the aforementioned cases were produced before the respective trial courts within three months, the court made it clear "they will not be required to first obtain warrants/summons from the courts concerned in each case".
The court also asked the Home Secretary of the state to ensure availability of adequate infrastructure so that photocopies of papers, under Section 207 CrPC, could be handed over "free of cost" by the Investigating Officer to the accused "at the time of initial appearance".
The court also directed the Principal Secretary (Finance) and the Principal Secretary (Law) "to render all assistance to the Home Secretary for complying with these directions".
The court also directed the trial courts "not to accept reports under section 173(2) CrPC unless the accused are produced in custody or appear before the court at the time of submission of the report" except when the same was not possible "due to illness or other genuine reason".
