Dimapur Bar responds to charge of travesty

Dimapur, August 5 : The Dimapur Bar Association has responded to the charge of the ACAUT that the judiciary in Nagaland has undermined justice. The association issued a press release on Friday. “The members of Dimapur Bar Association have taken strong exception to the same and are constrained to make a rejoinder for the consumption of the public and to refrain the entire stakeholders from publishing such irresponsible, reckless and counterproductive statements in the near future,” the rejoinder stated. According to the association, the matter of bail or anticipatory bail has been provided in chapter XXXIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure under Sections 436, 437, 438 and 439; several guidelines are laid down by the Supreme Court of India on such matters in the light of Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the Indian Constitution. Also, the association stated, the Constitution of India provides for appellate judiciary system wherein any of the party being aggrieved by the decision of the inferior court can always appeal in the superior courts. “As such, the matters of bail/anticipatory bail are granted or denied by applying judicious mind and taking into consideration of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure vis-a-vis the Constitution of India. Therefore, the objection raised by the ACAUT on the issue of granting bails/anticipatory bails to the fuel adulteration kingpins merely by blaming the system of Judiciary and its functioning without resorting to prescribed parameters of the provisions of law shall amount to interference in the judicial process.” The association remarked that if the ACAUT presumes that "with the kingpin already out on anticipatory bail, the incident has only reinforced the public opinion that the criminal-justice system in the state is in need of a serious overhaul," then a proposition can be made that the individual or group in concern can ‘press the parliament for amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Constitution of India.’ To sum up, the group added, “the criminal justice system is applicable to all the citizens of India, irrespective of status as such, the same yardstick applies to all and not exceptional or selective.”