High Court to Lower Courts: Give Sufficient Time for Execution of Warrants

The Punjab & Haryana HC has issued a direction to all lower courts in Punjab, Haryana & Chandigarh to ensure that sufficient time is given to the summoning agency or police for execution of the warrants & return of the summons.

A single bench of the HC has said that normally not less than 10 days for reports on such summons or warrants issued should be given if the area of service is within Punjab & Haryana, Chandigarh & Himachal Pradesh.

Regarding other states, the court has said “15 days would normally be given, for doing the needful except in cases where there is genuine urgency, in which case of course shorter dates would be given, but by giving cogent reason for the same”.

The Court has directed the Registrar Judicial to circulate the order to all District & Sessions Judges for onward dissemination among all the judicial officers.

The issue was taken up in a bail matter from Chandigarh where the court was told that the summons & warrants often go unexecuted because sufficient time wasn't being given to the officials responsible for serving or executing them. About 5000 summons & warrants are assigned per month in Chandigarh, the court was told by Chandigarh Police.

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