SOP Station House Management by Kerala Police

106 9. COURT CRAFT
should be appointed as a liason
officer for each Court to
take care of the Court related
matters and report back to
the SHO the progress of the
case in the Court. In Sessions
cases, the I.O. should
be present in the Court during
the course of trial in the
Court. This instills great confidence
in the witnesses to give
evidence without fear. It even
effects positively the performance
of the prosecuting officers
in the Court. Malpractices
adopted by the Court
Civil Police Officers in manipulating
the cases by influencing
the witnesses should be
checked.
9.12 Court Trial
Management
System
(CTMS)
Follow up of Crime cases after
the final report is submitted
to the Court is essential
to ensure proper trial and conviction.
Court Trial Management
System ensures this by
providing a web based application
to enter the details at
various stages of trial. CTMS
reduces the need for physical
transmission of data and
court CDs. Users can enter
court duty details on a daily
basis online.
Once the Final report is
prepared, Investigation officers
can enter on the CTMS
whether the case is Charge
sheeted or Referred. Thereafter
from the stages of allotment
of CC number through
the trial proceedings till the
completion of Trial, the data
at each stage is entered by
the Court duty personnel.This
portal is designed for use by
Court duty personnel, SHOs,
Investigation officers, and Superior
officers to monitor the
Trial and assist in successful
prosecution.
9.13 Witness protection
during
investigation
and trial
There have been instances
where witnesses have been
threatened not to give evidence
in favour of prosecution
or the witness is pressurized
by the accused to give false
evidence. The witnesses are
induced to turn hostile in the
Court. Hence a witness protection
System should be in
place for a fair trial. In foreign
countries like America, witness
protection is a top priority
in the legal System. Even
under Indian Law, new provisions
like Section: 195A CrPC
and Section: 195A IPC have
been added to take care of
witness protection during trial
and necessary action is to be
taken against the accused who
threatens the witness to give
false evidence procedural aspects
is provided under Section
195A CrPC whereas penal
aspects are covered under
Section 195A IPC. Section
195A IPC provides that whoever
threatens another with
injury to his person, reputation
or property with intent to
cause that person to give false
evidence shall be punished
with imprisonment for a term
extending to 7 years or fine
or both. If innocent person is
convicted because of false evidence
with death or imprisonment
for more than seven
years, the person threatening
shall be punished with the
same punishment the innocent
convicted person suffers.
Section 195A CrPC procedure
for witnesses in case of threatening
etc., A witness or any
other person may file a complaint
in relation to offences
under Section 195A of IPC.
The Police can also register
cases against accused
who threatens witnesses not
to give true evidence and compels
the witness to give false
evidence under other provisions
of Indian Penal Code
also.
9.14 Reasons for
failure of
cases and acquittals
in
Courts
The Supreme Court has
stated that unmerited acquittals
lead to disorder in the
society. Recently, in Kishan
Bai’s Case, Supreme Court
has observed thatdisciplinary
action to be initiated against
the Police for faulty investigations
and the investigating
officer should be made accountable
for the lapses in
the investigation. Lack of
proper investigation is one of
the main causes for acquittal
of criminal cases in the
Court. Frequent work review
meetings should be conducted
by superior Police officers to
review the performance of investigating
officer.
When a case ends in an acquittal,
it should be probed
in the review meeting. It
should be ascertained whether
the acquittal is on account
of lapses in the investigation
or for other reasons. Whenever
a new law is passed having
implications on the proce-