Transit warrant cannot be misused, Madras High Court tells police

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Saturday ruled that a delay in producing a “prisoner on transit” (PT) warrant before the concerned court will certainly curtail the liberty of a person guaranteed under the Constitution of India.

The issue pertains to a batch of pleas filed, including one Kishore of Coimbatore who had several cases against him and was in judicial custody. During the custody, the Karamadai police and PN Palayam police carried out a formal arrest through a PT warrant on April 3, and May 11, 2020, respectively. However, the accused was produced before the magistrate court only on August 21. The counsel for the petitioner argued that the delay caused the accused to lose his fundamental right.

Justice Anand Venkatesh, recording the submissions, made it clear that a person cannot be kept under remand on the strength of a PT warrant and that he/she has to be necessarily produced before the concerned court at the earliest point of time. Citing several judgments on the issue, the court observed, if persons arrested on PT warrants were not produced for remand at the earliest, it would violate their right to personal liberty.

This could also affect the computation of days spent in detention for the purpose of default bail under Section 167 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court pointed out. This provision entitles an arrested person to be released on bail if the police fail to file charge sheet/final report within the prescribed period of 60 days or, in some cases, 90 days.

In its order, the court observed, “Such questionable practices, by taking advantage of a PT warrant, continue to be adopted by the police ... The respondent police, by adopting a skewed practice, have defeated the right of the petitioner, and thereby, the liberty of the petitioner has been directly violated. This practice must be immediately stopped. Even in cases where a person is involved in serious offences, the correct procedure has to be adopted scrupulously.”  Justice Anand Venkatesh set aside the remand order against the petitioners and directed their release on bail.

Plea to recruit pharmacists rejected
Chennai: The Madras High Court has refused to allow a plea seeking direction to the State government to recruit 200 pharmacists to disburse medicines in the 2,000 odd mini clinics to be established across the State. The court dismissed the plea after the State informed that the doctors deputed to the clinics will themselves dispense medicines.

Justice S Vaidyanathan recording the observations made by both the parties in his order observed that “a plain reading of Section 42 of the Act in its entirety would make it very clear that even though it speaks about registered pharmacists, the doctor is empowered to disburse medicines to patients. The pharmacists will have to depend on the doctor and there is no need for a doctor to depend on the pharmacist.” When a small area of 200 square feet is earmarked for the purpose of mini clinics, it is equally mandatory to keep social distancing, the court added and dismissed the plea.