A Delhi sessions court on Wednesday cautioned the magisterial courts to pass the orders related to the under trails or accused in their presence or involving them.
Additional sessions judge (ASJ) S.S. Rathi cautioned the courts while disposing a plea by militant Daya Singh Lahoria of separatist Sikh outfit Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF), objecting to his branding by a police official as a convict in the case relating to the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
Relying on Lahoria’s description as a convict in the assassination case and a security threat, the Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate had allowed police to take him to Ludhiana to attend a hearing in a court there on October 4 and 5, 2011, in handcuffs and fetters. “The order reveals that it was not passed in the immediate presence of accused. As per the order, neither the undertrial prisoner was personally present nor any opportunity of being heard was given to him through his counsel,” said ASJ Rathi.