The Madras High Court has directed its registry to communicate to the District Magistrate-cum-Judicial Magistrate, Omalur, to reconstruct the papers of a missing case bundle relating to a murder.
The District Magistrate should act as per the High Court's instructions in May 2009 regarding missing of the case records/bundles by reconstructing the papers, Justice P. Jyothimani stated in his order on a writ petition.
Petitioner K. Nagaraj of Taramangalam in Salem district said that he is a barber. He had preferred a complaint with Taramangalam police station relating to the murder of his sister-in-law Shanthi in September 2008. It was registered.
After a charge sheet was filed before the Judicial Magistrate (JM), Omalur, against Tirupathi and Maheswari, the case was committed to the Principal Sessions Judge, Salem, on September 9, 2009.
The petitioner said that subsequently, on enquiry, he found that the sessions court had not received the case bundle. When he made enquiries in the office of the Judicial Magistrate, Omalur, he was told that the bundle was missing. He had made several oral complaints to the JM's office. He had complained to the Registrar-General (RG), High Court, and the Superintendent of Police (SP), High Court (Vigilance), but there was no response.
He submitted that the Judicial Magistrate, Omalur, was duty bound to keep the records properly. Due to negligence on the part of the officials of the JM's office, the case bundle was lost. For the past one year, no action was taken to retrieve the file. The Registrar-General had failed to take appropriate action on his complaint till date.
He prayed the court for a direction to the RG and the SP to take appropriate action on his complaint of October 2010 by directing the JM's office to retrieve the file for further course of action.
Mr. Justice Jyothimani said the Inspector, Taramangalam police, should assist the JM in reconstructing the papers.
