Jodhpur: Taking a note of consistent failure of police officials to appear in court for testimony, the Jodhpur bench of Rajasthan High Court Thursday issued a notice to DGP Rajeev Kumar Sharma, seeking an affidavit explaining why the officials are failing to discharge duties.The single bench of Justice Farjand Ali issued the notice while hearing a petition by Kuldeep Singh, who also objected to the non-execution of summons and arrest warrants against the police officials. The court referenced a previous order by a coordinate bench, which directed the DGP to appoint a nodal officer in each district for the smooth compliance of summons and warrants issued to police witnesses. The court has also sought an affidavit to confirm whether those directions have been implemented in letter and spirit. The matter pertains to the failure of a police official to appear for testimony despite an warrant, which has been listed for the next hearing on September 12. The court questioned why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against the responsible officers for such blatant disobedience of the court’s orders. It expressed distress over the deplorable state of affairs, noting that police officers, who are duty-bound to effectuate the service of process in criminal cases, are blatantly defying the process of law. HC commented that the situation becomes more alarming when a warrant of arrest issued by a court is not executed because the concerned person happens to be a police officer. “This shakes the confidence of the public in the justice delivery system and seriously erodes the faith of society in the preventive agency itself. Nothing can be more shameful for a democratic system governed by the rule of law,” the court said.
