The Chhattisgarh High Court comprising a Single bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra has directed all the trial courts in Chhattisgarh to obtain Aadhar Card of the accused as well as of the surety while directing the release of an applicant on bail for their verification.
The instant directions came in a case titled Ved Prakash Gupta @ Gudda v. State Of Chhattisgarh, wherein the applicant had applied for a bail with the High Court. He was working as an Advocate’s Clerk and was accused of engaging himself in fraudulent activities by standing surety for a bail by affixing his photograph in the property papers of other persons. In the due course of the proceedings of the instant case, the counsel for the State had submitted before the High Court that in almost all courts of the state, forged sureties are produced to obtain bail on the basis of forged revenue papers or by impersonating the real surety and if this particular menace is not controlled or regulated, it would attain enormous proportion.
The lawyers present in the court room did not dispute with what was submitted by the counsel for the state. Thus, the court accordingly gave the following directions to all the Trial Courts in Chhattisgarh so that the menace can be controlled/regulated.
- While examining the surety papers the trial Court shall necessarily obtain copy of the Aadhaar Card of the accused as well as of the surety.
- The Aadhaar Card of the accused and the surety as well as genuineness of the revenue papers shall be verified by all the trial Courts, as soon as the same are furnished, preferably within a period of one week from the date of its submission.
- The release warrant shall be issued only after proper verification of the identity of the accused and the surety as well as the genuineness of the revenue/surety papers.
- In the event the revenue/surety papers or the Aadhaar Card is found to be forged, the concerned trial Court shall forthwith lodge an FIR (First Information Report) against the person who submitted the papers/Aadhaar details.
- The concerned District & Sessions Judge shall maintain a register/database in electronic form containing the case No., crime No., particulars of the accused, details of the Police Station, particulars of the person who has stood surety for the accused therein, the details of the property against which the surety is based, etc.
- If a particular surety is found to have stood surety in many cases on the basis of same property papers, the same shall be rejected, if it is involved in more than two cases.
- The concerned Revenue Officer and the Station House Officer shall cooperate with the trial Court in course of verification of revenue/surety papers as well as the Aadhaar details of the accused and the surety.
- All the trial Courts shall meticulously follow these directions and shall certify in the order sheet of the respective case that “the verification of papers has been done in accordance with the order passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh in M.Cr.C No. 3957 of 2017 (Ved Prakash Gupta @ Gudda v. State of Chhattisgarh)”.
- If such certification is not made by the trial Court, disciplinary action may be initiated against the erring Presiding Officer.
Click here to read the judgment.
