SHILLONG: The district council court has been asked to speed up the trial related to Under Trial Prisoner Demansing Kynter, who has been languishing in Shillong jail for 12 years.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice V.P Vaish on Thursday ordered that the district council court should also take up other pending cases for speedy disposal. When the PIL on the matter was taken up, the UTP and the case record were produced in the Court. Legal aid counsel for the UTP I. Lyngdoh and public prosecutor K.J Dohling were also present.
While Lyngdoh said she was appointed only on October 3, 2016, the public prosecutor maintained that she could not attend the Court due to her illness and that the matter was assigned to her only about a year ago.
What shocked the High Court was that no order sheet has been drawn after October 7, 2016 in the matter till the file was sent to the Court on Wednesday.
Though the Court wanted to transfer the case to any other court, the counsel for KHADC, K. Paul assured that the matter will be taken up in right earnest by the district council court.
According to the High Court, the story is that of “wanton unconcerned approach, practically on the part of all the concerned, to the extent that the matter had regularly been adjourned without registering substantial progress and with the result that the accused, arrested way back in June, 2005, is in custody now for over 12 years”.
The Court also observed that the record and submissions as made, leave nothing to doubt that the seriousness of the matter, “where a man facing trial is in jail for an abnormally long length of time, has been simply ignored by all the concerned and it has been nothing but a travesty of justice that the trial in this matter has not acquired requisite attention”.
Counsel Philemon Nongbri has volunteered to act as a defence counsel in aid of the legal aid counsel appointed by the State Legal Services Authority and would render all help to the district council court for ensuring conclusion of the matter at the earliest.
The Court hence appointed him as additional defence counsel to represent the accused.
The Court also said that the district council court should take up the matter from Friday with top most priority and, as far as possible, should conduct trial on day to day basis and conclude the same at the earliest, preferably before the end of the next month.
The member secretary, State Legal Services Authority, has been asked to keep track of the progression of the matter and to submit the progress report of the case on the next date of hearing.
He has also been asked to compile all the details of the cases of the UTPs in terms of the years of incarceration and present the specific report before the Court on the next date, particularly in relation to all such pending matters were the accused are in custody for more than three years.
The matter will be taken up again on July 7.
