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SC stops harassment of witnesses

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court Thursday put a stop to the harassment caused to witnesses in criminal cases due to frequent adjournments and directed that if a witness was present in a trial court he must be examined on that day itself.

"We make it abundantly clear that if a witness is present in court he must be examined on that day," a division bench comprising Justice K T Thomas and Justice R P Sethi said.

"Witnesses tremble on getting summons from courts, in India, not because they fear examination or cross-examination in courts but because of the fear that they might not be examined at all for several days and on such days they would be nailed to the precincts of courts awaiting their chance of being examined," Justice Thomas said summarising their plight.

Admonishing the trial courts for granting adjournments on flimsy grounds much to the inconvenience of the witnesses, Justice Thomas, writing the judgement for the Bench, said "It is high time that trial courts should regard witnesses as guests invited (through summons) for helping such courts with their testimony for reaching judicial findings."

He said the witnesses keep aside their avocation and go to the courts and wait and wait for hours to be told at the end of the day to come again and wait and wait like that.

"This is the infelicitious scenario in many of the courts in India so far as the witnesses are concerned," he added.

Terming the condition of the witnesses as worse than that of the litigants, the bench said "The courts must know that most of the witnesses could attend the courts only at a heavy cost to them, after keeping aside their own avocation."

Justice Thomas said the meagre allowance given to the witnesses for attending the court on each and every occasion as "a poor solace for the financial loss incurred by him".

"It is a sad plight in the trial courts that the witnesses who are called through summons or other processes stand at the doorstep from morning till evening only to be told at the end of the day that the case is adjourned to another day," he said.

Referring to Section 309 of Criminal Procedure Code providing for power to postpone or adjourn proceedings, Justice Thomas said the legislature wanted the trial to go on on a day to day basis as soon as the examination of witnesses was started.

"Thus, the legal position is that once examination of witnesses is started, the court has to continue the trial until all witnesses in attendance have been examined," he said.

"The court has to record reasons for deviating from the said course. Even that is forbidden when witnesses are present in court, as the requirement then is that the court has to examine them," the bench said.

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