The Madras High Court Bench here has directed criminal courts across the State to desist from issuing non-bailable arrest warrants (NBW) as a matter of course and in a casual manner just because they were legally empowered to issue them.
In a judgment ordered to be circulated to all the criminal courts, Justice S. Nagamuthu “deprecated” the practice of issuing NBWs without assigning reasons and ordered that such warrants should not be issued unless there were compelling reasons to do so.
Referring to a series of Supreme Court judgments delivered on the issue since 2007, the judge said that a perusal of those judgements would make it clear that courts should be extremely cautious before issuing NBWs since they curtail personal liberty of individuals.
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“In this regard, I would state that the power to issue a warrant, either bailable or non-bailable, is different from the necessity to exercise the said power… I am hopeful that the subordinate courts will scrupulously follow the Supreme Court directions in the days to come,” he observed.
He also pointed out that NBWs could be issued only when it was reasonable to believe that the person concerned would not voluntarily appear in court or if the police were unable to serve summons on him or if there was a possibility of him harming someone if not taken into custody.
The order was passed on a petition filed by a company accused of having cheated hundreds of investors by luring them to invest their money in establishing emu farms in Dindigul district.
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However, during the course of hearing, former State Public Prosecutor and senior counsel I. Subramanian, appearing for the petitioner, chose to withdraw the petition after pointing out to the judge that the Sessions Court had straightaway issued NBWs against his clients without even issuing summons.