The Single Judge Bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justice N Anand Venkatesh has directed the lower court in Villupuram to complete the trial in the sexual assault complaint of a woman IPS officer against the suspended DGP by December 20, 2021.
The Bench expounded that,
“there shall be a direction to the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram, to proceed further and frame charges and conduct the trial on a day to day basis in line with the guidelines issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Vinod Kumar v. State of Punjab reported in [2015] 1 MLJ (Crl) 288 (SC). In any event, the proceedings shall be completed on or before 20.12.2021 and a compliance report shall be filed before this Court”.
Factual Background
The Madras HC took suo motu case related to alleged sexual harassment of an IPS cadre woman officer by her senior, a Special DGP, and decided to monitor the investigation into the case itself. The Court criticized the alleged incident and expressed its displeasure at the manner in which the Special DGP allegedly used his contacts and power to prevent the victim officer from filing the suit against him.
On the direction of the Court, the State Government dismissed the delinquent police officer for free and impartial inquiry and to build public faith.
Court Reasoning and Judgment
The Court has made a perusal of the Status report filed by IO i.e. Status Report. The learned State Public Prosecutor submitted in the Court that a total of 122 witnesses have been examined and 72 documents were collected in the course of the investigation. It was also submitted that the Final Report was filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram, on 29.07.2021.
The learned Advocate General appearing on behalf of the 2nd and 3rd respondents submitted that the DGP, CBCID has already made a recommendation to the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government, Home Department, to initiate departmental proceedings as against the following officers viz., (1) Mr.Rajesh Das - IPS (2) Mr.Kannan - Superintendent of Police (3) Mr.H.M.Jayaram, IPS (4) Mr.Gunasekaran - Superintendent of Police (5) Mr.Varun Kumar- IPS and (6) Doctor Annie Vijaya - IPS.
The Court perused the Status Report of IO and the submissions made by the learned Advocate General and the learned State Public Prosecutor. The Court shows its concern on the time period of the case as the matter is connected with the faith of the General public in the Judiciary and in the fitness of things, it will be more appropriate if a time limit is fixed for the completion of the criminal proceedings before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram.
The Court expressed that the effectiveness of the criminal justice system largely depends upon the completion of the proceedings at the earliest and certainty of either punishment or acquittal, as the case may be, of the accused persons. The Court is also aware of the fact that the prima facie findings that were given by this Court in the writ petition will not bind the trial court.
The Court considered the facts available before it and held that,
“there shall be a direction to the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram, to proceed further and frame charges and conduct the trial on a day to day basis and in any event, the proceedings shall be completed on or before 20.12.2021 and a compliance report shall be filed before this Court.”
The Court also provided the option of time extension before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram that If in case, the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Villupuram, requires an extension of time, for any reasons, an appropriate memo shall be filed before this Court and the same will be considered.
The Bench posted the matter on 23.12.2021 for the next hearing and hoped that the proceedings shall be conducted without granting unnecessary adjournments.
Case Details
Case: W.P.No.6591 of 2021
Petitioner: Suo Motu Cognizance
Respondent: Government of India & Ors.
Quorum: Justice N. Anand Venkatesh
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