Explain Hostility

Vide our judgment dated 18-12-2006 we have reversed the acquittal of accusedSiddharth Vashisht @ Manu Sharma, who was tried for the commission of offencespunishable under Sections 302 IPC, 201/120-B IPC and Section 27 of the Arms Act.He has been held guilty in appeal for all these offences. 

The acquittal ofaccused Amardeep Singh Gill @ Tony Gill and Vikas Yadav, both of whom along withSiddharth Vashisht @ Manu Sharma were tried under Section 201/120-B IPC has alsobeen set aside by us and they stand convicted for this offence. They have beenappropriately sentenced vide our separate order passed today in the appeal. 

While hearing the appeal we had the occasion to examine the trial Courtproceedings. The prosecution in support of its case had examined 101 witnessesin all which included eye witnesses of the murder of Jessica Lal. To our uttersurprise we found that during the trial as many as 32 witnesses including threeeye witnesses of the murder and one ballistic expert had to be got declaredhostile by the prosecution. That is definitelya sad state of affairs. 

Witnesses turning hostile appears to be the order ofthe day. The Courts must put an end to this kind of attitude of witnessesturning hostile in order to thwart the course of justice. In the facts andcircumstances of the present case we are of the view that it is expedient in theinterest of justice to take recourse to Section 340 of the Code of CriminalProcedure, which this Court as an Appellate Court can do in exercise of thepowers under Section 340(2) Cr.P.C since the trial Court has chosen not toinvoke this provision of law despite taking note of the fact that a large numberof witnesses had turned hostile. 

We, therefore, direct that a show cause noticebe issued to the following witnesses who had appeared during the trial and hadturned hostile to show cause as to why action be not taken against them as perthe provisions of Section 340 Cr.P.C.:

1.PW-2 Shyan Munshi
2.PW-3 Shiv Das Yadav
3.PW-4 Karan Rajput
4.PW-5 Parikshat Sagar
5.PW-19 Andleep Sehgal
6.PW-25 Manoj Kumar
7.PW-26 Balbir Singh
8.PW-31 Narain
9.PW-34 Tarsem Lal Thhapar
10.PW-35 Birbal
11.PW-44 Shankar Mukhia
12.PW-50 Harpal Singh
13.PW-52 Chander Parkash Chabra
14.PW-53 Abhijeet Ghosal
15.PW-54 Varun Shah
16.PW-55 Mukesh Saini
17.PW-56 Chetan Nanda
18.PW-57 Ashok Dutt
19.PW-60 Baldev Singh
20.PW-61 Ishdeep Sharma
21.PW-62 Ali Mohammad
22.PW-64 Ravinder Singh Gill
23.PW-65 Kulvinder Singh
24.PW-67 Niranjan Ram
25.PW-68 Mangal Singh
26.PW-69 Rakesh Kumar Atri
27.PW-71 Harminder Singh
28.PW-72 Lal Singh
29.PW-77 Gajender Singh
30.PW-87 Jagan Nath Jha
31.PW-95 Prem Sagar Manocha
32.PW-98 Babu Lal

The show cause notices be served on these witnesses through the SHO concernedwho will ensure that they are served before the next date of hearing. Thesepersons are required to be present in court in person on the next date ofhearing.
List on 1st February, 2007.