When will you frame witness protection scheme under BNSS, Madras HC asks T.N. govt.

The Madras High Court has directed the Home Secretary and Director General of Police to explain the enormous delay of nearly 10 years by the Tamil Nadu police in completing investigations, even in murder cases. On finding that almost all the criminal cases, including one for the charge of murder, against the detainee were still under investigation, despite them having been registered between 2014 and 2016, the judges wrote: “If the police authorities take more than a decade even to complete the investigation, this court is afraid as to when the trial will be concluded and the offenders will be punished.” Observing that the criminal justice delivery system would be able to sustain the confidence of the people only if the offenders get punished through due process within a reasonable time, the Bench said: “Undue delay in completing the investigation, filing charge sheets, and conducting trials before the courts concerned cannot be approved by the High Court under any circumstance.” When Additional Public Prosecutor R. Muniyapparaj told the judges that Commissioners and Superintendents of Police conduct periodical review meetings to take stock of the progress made in the criminal cases pending within their jurisdiction, the Bench said, the Home Secretary and the DGP too should monitor such review meetings and address lapses, if any, in completing investigations. The Bench also made it clear that the trial courts should take the final reports, filed by the police after completing investigation, on file without delay. Authoring the order, Justice Subramaniam said, the police could approach either the High Court or the Principal Sessions Judges if the trial courts concerned take a long time to scrutinise the final reports and take them on file.