HYDERABAD: A bench of the Telangana High Court, presided over by Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice T Vinod Kumar, on Monday directed petitioner Pabbathi Sai Kumar, a law student from Hyderabad, to make IPS officer Shika Goel as a respondent in a PIL contesting the State government’s decision to designate an IPS officer as the Director of the Telangana State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
During the proceedings, counsel for the petitioner apprised the court of the pivotal role that the FSL plays in aiding investigative officers by furnishing crucial insights into cases, to the extent that it can directly impact the conviction or acquittal of those accused. Counsel said that this makes it important that the leadership of the FSL be exclusively entrusted to a forensic scientist rather than an IPS officer.
Historically, the FSL has been under the guidance of a qualified forensic scientist since its inception. However, a deviation occurred in 2015 when the State government began appointing IPS officers to helm the FSL, contrary to the guidelines established by the National Accreditation Board of Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
The NABL stipulates unequivocally that only a forensic scientist should hold the position of director, precluding the appointment of personnel from other departments. Since 2015, four IPS officers have assumed the role of director at the TS FSL, counsel said. The bench adjourned the matter for a week.