Telangana not assisting us properly in criminal cases: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday lamented that the Telangana government has not been offering proper assistance to the Court during criminal case hearings [Vatti Janaiah v State of Telangana].

A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti expressed its sentiments in this regard today to the State's Director General of Police (DGP), who was present virtually.

The Court had directed the Telangana DGP to appear before it after the State counsel could not answer basic queries during an earlier hearing of a criminal case.

"I must tell you that we are not getting proper assistance from your State in criminal matters, this is the default situation," Justice Bhatti told the DGP today.

"Such a phenomenon is being seen repeatedly in (matters concerning) Telangana," Justice Roy weighed in.

The Court was hearing a plea by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Vatti Janaiah Yadav, who was earlier part of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

He had moved the top court last year alleging criminal persecution by the then BRS-led State government after he quit BRS and joined BSP.

The top court had in October 6 last year sought the response of the Telangana government in the matter, and provided Yadav interim protection from arrest in thirteen first information reports (FIRs) against him.

During a hearing of the matter on October 1 (Tuesday), the Court took critical note that the prosecution and arguing counsel were not in sync while making submissions on when a chargesheet was filed in this case.

The DGP was, therefore, directed to be present before the Court today to clarify these details.

The Court today grilled the DGP on who should be held responsible for the inconsistencies noticed in the State counsel's arguments.

"Who is at fault? Your officers or the State? What action have you initiated?" Justice Bhatti asked.

Justice Roy added that the court's last order had been framed in a 'polite' manner out of courtesy, despite the grave state of affairs.

Justice Bhatti further pointed out that information on chargsheets is readily available at the click of the button for the State.

"So where did it go wrong? ... We do not want to make it seem after hearing the DGP online that we are satisfied and closing the matter. Let him file affidavit," the Court added.

The DGP, Dr. Jitender assured the Court that such lapses will not re-occur.

"Scope for such things should not be there again. We will see that such lapses do not happen in future. The officer concerned we will definitely take action sirs. We will take action and hold accountable," he said.

The Bench was left unimpressed.

"What about present lapse? What action? You are just repeating from the book," Justice Bhatti said.

Justice Roy emphasised that a clear affidavit needs to be filed by the DGP to explain the lapses already noticed by the Court.

Having called for this affidavit, the Court proceeded to dispense with the police officer's personal appearance in future hearings, for now.

Advocates Vinay P Tripathi, B Shravanth Shanker, Prerna Robin, Shivam Kunal and B Yeshwanth Raj appeared for Yadav.

Senior Advocate Nikhil Goel with advocates Devina Sehgal, Rajiv Kumar Choudhry, S Uday Bhanu, Siddhi Gupta, Ashutosh Ghade, Adithya Koshy Roy and Naveen Goel appeared for the State of Telangana.