Prayagraj, Oct 19 The Allahabad High Court has directed the Judicial Training and Research Institute (JTRI), Lucknow, to prepare and disseminate training modules for judicial magistrates after highlighting repeated instances of magistrates failing to properly scrutinise remand applications and routinely authorising remand.
In a remand order, an accused person is kept in custody either in police lock-up (police custody) for interrogation or sent to jail (judicial custody).
A division bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev observed that magistrates cannot take shelter behind an overload of judicial work when dealing with remand proceedings, which directly concern the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 21 (right to life and personal liberty) and Article 22 (right of arrested person) of the Constitution.
The court also warned that in future, such acts of abdication of duty by the magistrate shall be taken serious note of by the high court and even administrative action can be recommended.
The court made these observations while allowing a habeas corpus petition filed by Kushinagar’s resident Arvind Pandey, who challenged his custody in a cyber fraud case.
The court ordered his release after finding that his arrest memo was grossly deficient in material particulars.
While dealing with the habeas corpus petition, the court had earlier sought an explanation from the district judge, Kushinagar, on the remand granted to the accused despite deficiencies in the arrest memo.
In his explanation dated October 3, the magistrate admitted his error and sought the court’s pardon. He stated that owing to an overload of judicial work, particularly bail applications, he had not examined the police remand application with the necessary vigilance.
The court observed that the magistrate treated the police remand application as a formality and dealt with it routinely. It added that had the magistrate been vigilant, the habeas corpus petition would not have been necessary.
(PTI News)
