High Court urges Amarinder Singh to devise ways by which to revamp prosecution of drug cases in Punjab

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High court on Wednesday asked chief minister Amarinder Singh to examine and devise ways to strengthen the prosecution of criminal cases. A bench of Justice Daya Choudhary urged Singh to try to strengthen the criminal justice administration system, taking note of his presence in the courtroom itself. [caption id=“attachment_1489893” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. PTI[/caption] Amarinder had appeared in the court to tender his evidence in an election petition against his election to the Patiala Urban constituency in the 2002 Assembly polls. The petition was pending there and had been listed for hearing on Wednesday, said an official spokesman in Chandigarh. While the chief minister awaiting his turn for hearing of the petition against him, the court was hearing another matter, relating to prosecution in a drug case, in which the prosecution had failed to attach the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report to the chargesheet. The prosecution failure to submit the CFSL report to the court along with the chargesheet prompted the court to ask Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda, who had accompanied Singh for his deposition, to consider creating changes for prosecution of such cases. The court further observed, “We would like to take advantage of the presence of the chief minister” and urge him to look into the matter to ensure better dispensation of justice in criminal cases by the courts. The court further observed that “While Punjab used to be number one state in many positive aspects, unfortunately it was occupying the sad position in a negative sense on account of the drug menace.” Everyone hopes that Punjab would regain its old glory, said the court. Meanwhile, the election petition for which the chief minister had gone to the court was adjourned for two weeks for further proceedings.