New Delhi, Feb 05: The criminal justice system in
the country has not been able to achieve its objective as the
accused in several cases manage to get away from the clutches
of the law due to protracted trial and loopholes in the
system, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday.
"We have come across cases where smugglers, those
dealing in narcotics, RDX get away from the law," due to the
loopholes in the system, a three-judge bench of Justices B N
Aggrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam observed.
The apex court also said that there has been a tendency
among some senior advocates to "browbeat" even the judiciary
into submission.
"Today some advocates resort to browbeating the
presiding officer (judge). Time has come now when some judges
move out of a case out of sheer disgust," the bench observed.
The bench made these remarks in the course of hearing
the appeal relating to the purported by a private news channel sting operation
exposing the alleged involvement of Senior Defence Counsel R K
Anand and Special Public Prosecutor I U Khan in their bid to
influence a key prosecution witness in the BMW car accident
case.
The apex court made these remarks after senior counsel
Harish Salve appearing for the sting operation accused Anand of resorting
to "bench hunting" in the Delhi High Court which had initiated
suo moto contempt proceedings against him and I U Khan on the
basis of the sting operation.
Salve recalled that Anand had sought recusal
(withdrawal) of Justice Manmohan Sarin of High Court who had
suo moto initiated the contempt proceedings from hearing the
matter.
Justice Sarin at that time had refused to rescue from the
matter on the ground that Anand was merely resorting to
"bench hunting".
The apex court said that the common man today
approaches even courts like the Munsif magistrate or District
Magistrate out of sheer compulsion, rather than voluntary
intention.
"By the time a case reaches the Supreme Court it takes
30 years. Only those people come to the court who have no
other option, but compulsion to do so," the bench remarked.
However, the apex court regretted that the entire
system including the judiciary is blamed for the rot that has
set in.
For instance, the bench pointed out that in a rape case
an accused might be released by a court on bail as the
mandatory chargesheet had not been filed by the prosecution.
But the media immediately reports with a screaming
headline "Rape accused released on bail".
"Though the media is sensitive in reporting such cases
(rape) it does not disclose who is responsible for it
(prosecution's failure to file chargesheet)," the bench
observed.
Both Anand and Khan had filed an appeal in the apex
court challenging the Delhi High Court's decision to them from
practising in courts for four months on charges of influencing
the witness in the BMW accident case, as highlighted by the
sting operation.
Anand has been claiming that the sting operation tapes
had been tampered with and has urged the Supreme Court
to refer the original computer chip to the Central Forensic
Laboratory.
On August 21 last year, Anand and former prosecutor I
U Khan were found guilty of influencing key witness Sunil
Kulkarni in the BMW hit-and-run case and the High Court barred
them from practising in courts for four months.
The High court on May 31 last year had taken suo motu
cognisance of the private news channel sting operation showing Anand, in
collusion with Khan, allegedly offering money to Kulkarni to
depose in favour of Sanjeev Nanda, the prime accused in the
BMW hit-and-run case.
Nanda, the grandson of retired Naval chief S M Nanda, was
later sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the case by a
city court.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, February 05, 2009, 00:00