NEW DELHI: To deliver faster justice, the Delhi High Court has asked all trial courts to use electronic mode to communicate with investigating agencies so that orders can be passed on and action on the complaints can be taken immediately.
The order comes a month after the Supreme Court directed all states to upload FIRs filed in police stations on their websites within 24 hours of filing, except of the crimes involving women, children and sensitive issues pertaining to terrorism and security.
A bench of Justices Gita Mittal and P S Teji asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to hold meetings with all senior officials and stop the trend of handwritten case diaries as most of them are illegible and court’s time is wasted in reading them. They suggested that correctly typed documents be prepared as soon as possible after the crime.
This initiative will also save effort on the part of the investigating agency. In its order, the High Court has also made it clear that FIRs filed under Section 157 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) should also be electronically communicated to magistrates. Under this section, the in-charge of a police station is required to send a report of the commission of an offence, which he is empowered to investigate under Section 156 of the CrPC, to a magistrate empowered to take cognisance of such offence.
“Given the electronic mode of communication, which is now available with the police as well as the Delhi judiciary, we see no reason as to why the investigating agency should not resort to utilisation of e-transmission of the report to the jurisdictional magistrates concerned to ensure timely compliance of Section 157. This would obviate all objections raised by the accused and convicts on delay in compliance,” the order states.
“This compliance is mandatory at a stage when police is required to undertake critical investigation, say recording accounts of victim and eyewitness, effecting searches and seizures and tracking accused,” the bench observed.
The court expressed concern over the failure of legislature to keep pace with development in technology, as far as CrPC is concerned.