SHILLONG: The High Court of Meghalaya has summoned East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner H.B Marak for bypassing the District and Sessions Judge while recommending the name of the Special Public Prosecutor to deal with POCSO cases.
During the hearing on a PIL on Friday, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice VP Vaish said it was a matter of concern that the deputy commissioner chose to state that his bypassing the District and Sessions Judge was only “impropriety and was now irrelevant”.
When the court asked government advocate K. Khan in this regard, he submitted that in fact, the Law Department too did not find the response satisfactory. The Law Secretary, in a letter on August 8, had indicated to the deputy commissioner that his letter dated July 31 was not clarifying the real issue and a response thereof was awaited. The Court observed that it was noticed that several of the areas are seriously required to be attended to so as to ensure effective proceedings under the POCSO Act and in fact, in all the matters before the courts of law.
According to the court, the response from the deputy commissioner has, prima facie, given an impression of a seriously questionable approach where even the observations made by the court in the order on July 19 were sought to be ignored.
However, the court felt it proper to extend an opportunity of hearing to the deputy commissioner before passing further orders in the matter and hence issued notice to the deputy commissioner to remain personally present in the court on August 21.
