The practice of taking rubber stamp cognizance continues in the subordinate courts, says judge.
The Madras High Court on Wednesday deprecated the practice of trial courts taking “rubber stamp cognisance” of charge sheets filed by the police in criminal cases without any application of mind whatsoever and ordered that such practice should be stopped forthwith.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh warned that the High Court would be forced to call for explanation from the judicial officer concerned if it comes across any order in which he/she had taken cognisance of the final reports filed by the police without giving any reasons for doing so.
The judge directed the High Court Registry to circulate a copy of his order to all the Principal District Judges in the State so that it could communicated further down the line to all other judicial officers too instructing them to not pass cryptic orders while taking cognisance of offences.
He recalled that a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court had in Pawan Kumar Sharma versus State of Uttaranchal (2009) expressed suprise over “strange orders” passed by the judicial officers and the “rubber stamp cognisance” taken by them in criminal cases.
The apex court had stated that the judicial officers must apply their mind before issuing summons to the accused on the basis of the final report filed by the police after completing the investigation in criminal cases and find out whether a prima facie case had been made out to issue the summons.
A similar view was taken by another three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Sunil Bharti Mittal versus Central Bureau of Investigation (2015) wherein it was held that judicial officers must form an opinion, after due application of mind, before proceeding against the accused in a criminal case.
Justice Venkatesh pointed out that he himself had followed the dictum laid down by the Supreme Court in those two judgements and passed a detailed order against such “rubber stamp cognisance” taken by the judicial officers in Shanmugam versus Inspector of Police, Ariyalur (2019).
“In spite of the same, the practice of taking rubber stamp cognizance continues in the subordinate courts… This court has been watching this trend of taking rubber stamp cognizance in many cases,” the judge said and warned the judicial officers that they would be pulled up if the practice continued anymore.
