Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 7: In a Criminal Acquittal Appeal turned Public Interest Litigation regarding low conviction in NDPS cases, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar has directed the IG Crime to file status report.
After hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi, the DB observed, “as per the earlier directions IG Crime Javed Geelani, who is also the Chairman of the Committee constituted vide Order No.1257 of 2013 dated 07.05.2013 is present. He has pointed out that the Committee has collected data from all the districts with regard to NDPS cases and the same is yet to be analyzed in order to reach to the bottom of the causes which result in acquittal of NDPS accused. There are also suggestions made by the Counsel for the PIL and the copy of the same will be furnished to the IG Crime”.
With these observations, Division Bench directed IG Crime to file status report within four weeks with regard to the steps so far taken to bring down the acquittal rate, which is presently at 92%
Taking serious note of low conviction in NDPS cases, the DB observed, “almost every day acquittal appeals are filed by the State against many orders passed by the Trial Courts and it is revealed that on account of non production of material witnesses’ prosecution cases are failed”.
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