Full Judgment Text
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CASE NO.:
Appeal (crl.) 1004 of 2006
PETITIONER:
Nathu @ Paras Ram
RESPONDENT:
State of Rajasthan
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 31/10/2006
BENCH:
S.B. Sinha & Dalveer Bhandari
JUDGMENT:
JUDGMENT
O R D E R
Perused the report of the Registrar (Judicial) dated 26.09.2006. The
special leave petition was filed on 10.06.2004, which was sent by one Nathu
@ Parasram, who is in custody. He had sent a copy of the judgment passed
by the High Court. The record was, however, put up on 04.09.2006.
It is in the aforementioned premise that an inquiry was directed to be
conducted. The Registrar (Judicial), in his report, inter alia, stated that the
office had sent for the records of the courts below which caused delay.
Our attention in this behalf has been drawn to Order XXI Rule 8 of
the Supreme Court Rules, 1966+, relevant portion whereof is in the
following terms :
"8. (1) If the petitioner is in jail and is not
represented by an advocate on record he may present his
petition for special leave to appeal together with the
certified copy of the Judgment and any written argument
which he may desire to advance to the officer-in-charge
of the jail, who shall forthwith forward the same to the
Registrar of this Court. Upon receipt of the said petition,
the Registrar of the Court shall, whenever necessary call,
from the proper officer of the Court or the Tribunal
appealed from, the relevant documents for determination
of the petition for special leave to appeal.
(2) As soon as all necessary documents are
available the Registrar shall, assign an Advocate from a
panel of amicus curiae and thereafter place the petition
and complete documents for hearing before the Court.
The fee of the advocate so engaged shall be Rs.250/- upto
the admission stage and a lump sum not exceeding
Rs.500/- for the hearing of the appeal arising therefrom,
as may be fixed by the Bench hearing the appeal, and in
an appropriate case, the Bench hearing the case may for
the reasons to be recorded in writing, sanction payment
of a lump sum not exceeding Rs.750/-."
Rules framed by this Court must be read in consonance with the
fundamental rights of the prisoners. A prisoner when sends a petition or an
appeal from jail, the same requires immediate attention of this Court. The
Court while entertaining a special leave petition having regard to the facts
and circumstances of the case, may suspend his sentence or allow his prayer
for bail. Each petition is accompanied by a copy of the judgment of the
High Court, which is supplied free of charge to the prisoners. It does not,
therefore, appear to be reasonable that in each and every case when the
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matter is being placed before the Registry, the records would be sent for and
when they are in vernacular language, the same would be translated into
English.
The Rule no doubt permits the Registrar to call for documents, but the
same is required to be done only when the same is found to be necessary and
not otherwise. Records of the case should not, thus, be called for in a
mechanical manner.
We, therefore, direct that when the special leave petitions are
forwarded through the officer-in-charge of the jail along with certified copy
of the judgment, the same should urgently be placed before the Court. The
first listing of the case should not be delayed. At best an office note be
placed that the translated copy of the records has not been sent; and if the
records are directed to be called for, the same are required to be translated.
It is only in cases where records are required to be called for, the same
should be done; as otherwise it may await the order of the Court. We direct
the Registry to act in terms of this order in future.