HC directs home secy to take disciplinary action against Karnal SP for not complying with order

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court Tuesday directed the Haryana Home Secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Karnal superintendent of police (SP) for failing to send custody certificates of eight convicts — sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for culpable homicide — to the court despite a communication from the Advocate General’s office.

The division bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sidhu had earlier modified the conviction order in the case from murder to culpable homicide and scheduled the quantum of sentence hearing for Tuesday. The state counsel during the hearing told court that the Karnal SP was asked to send custody certificates of convicts to court, but it was not done.

The court in its order said the custody certificates are of “utmost importance” as they are to be taken into consideration while pronouncing sentence, and added that the Karnal SP was required to comply with communication sent in this regard in letter and spirit.

“Consequently, secretary home, state of Haryana is directed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Karnal SP for not assisting the court by not sending custody certificates. The proceedings be initiated within a period of four weeks from today,” the order read.

The case dates back to 2011. A Karnal court in 2015 sentenced nine convicts in the case to life imprisonment for the incident. The convicts had gotten into a squabble with another group of people of the same village, leading to the death of one woman and injuries to eight others. On May 7, the division bench modified the conviction under Section 302 to Section 304 Part I.

On Tuesday, the division bench sentenced eight convicts to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and the lone woman convict among nine convicts to a simple sentence of 7 years, after taking note that she was 60 years old.