The Supreme Court next week is likely to consider a plea seeking a direction that presence of undertrials before the trial courts should not be ordered as a routine on each and every date, and video conferencing facility should be used in case of gangster, for public safety as well as security of judicial officers.

A bench headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit is likely to take up the PIL filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra on October 11.

The PIL raises an issue of power of trial courts for ordering attendance of undertrial prisoners before it as a matter of routine practice without adhering to the statutory mandate as provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The plea contended that it cannot be disputed that an undertrial prisoner has a constitutional right to be present before the trial court when the trial against him is in progress. However, the said right is not an absolute right and is rather qualified by various provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“The fulcrum of the instant Public Interest Litigation is to prevent the various trial courts across India to not to insist on presence of undertrials on each and every date as a matter of routine practice thereby not only endangering the safety of public as well as judicial officers but also facilitating the opportunity of hardcore prisoners from escaping from the custody of the police”, said the plea.

The plea cited the instance of the Rohini Court firing which happened on September 24, 2021, in which a dreaded gangster was shot dead when he was produced before the trial court for his usual appearance. “Apart from this there have been various instances all across the trial courts in India where during the normal usual course of appearances before the trial court by an undertrial, either the public safety has been put to danger or the said undertrial has fled from the custody of the police”, added the plea.

It added that the Code of Criminal Procedure in various provisions viz. sec.205, 267, 268, 270, 273 and 317 C.R.P.C. have provided powers to the concerned court to dispense the personal presence of undertrial from jails during normal trial proceedings.

The plea contended that even if the trial court deem fit in a particular case presence of an accused as an undertrial before it, it can avail video conferencing facility and especially in the cases of gangsters — so that the public safety as well as the security of the judicial officers remained intact on one hand and the rights of an accused is balanced on the other hand.

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The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) on Thursday said that a total of nine bodies which were trapped in the Uttarkashi avalanche have been recovered and retrieved now, while 29 other trainees continue to remain stranded.

According to the NIM, the nine bodies retrieved today include four dead bodies that were already brought down on Tuesday (October 4) and Wednesday (October 5).

The update on recovered bodies came hours after a team of experts from Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir, High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS), joined the operation with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and NIM to rescue mountaineers that were stranded on Draupadi’s Danda-II mountain peak in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi after the avalanche hit them on Tuesday.
However, more teams have been sent to the advance base camp from ITBP Matli in Uttarkashi.

An advance helicopter landing ground was also prepared at 16,000 ft and a trial landing was successfully conducted in the morning.
According to ITBP PRO Vivek Pandey, the advanced helipad has been made at high altitudes and helicopters are out for rescue operations.

“The dead bodies are present at the base and some of them are expected to be brought down today itself,” the ITBP PRO said adding that the measures are being hampered due to bad weather conditions but efforts to find the missing mountaineers are still underway.

On Wednesday, the survivors of the avalanche in Uttarkashi narrated their horrific experiences.

Deep Thakur, a trainee from Gujarat, who survived the accident while undergoing treatment at the district hospital, said that the avalanche came all of a sudden while he was climbing to Draupadi’s Danda Peak for a summit at around 9.45 am, which he along with his companions fell into the crevasses about 60 feet deep, where he struggled between death and life for about 3 hours.

Another survivor, Akash Lalvani, a trainee from Mumbai, told that he was only about 100 meters below the summit of Draupadi’s Danda and the only plan was to summit the peak and get down after being photographed there, because the weather was also clear. But the sudden avalanche has left them with an unforgettable sorrow.

On Tuesday, about 41 trainees and instructors of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were in the grip of Draupadi’s avalanche in Danda of Dokrani glacier at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters.

In view of the safety of the trekking and mountaineering teams in Uttarkashi, district magistrate Abhishek Ruhela on Thursday banned trekking activities here for the next three days.

Ruhela has banned these activities in Uttarkashi from October 6 (today) to October 8 (Saturday) ahead of the India Meteorological Department’s alert for intense rainfall in the state over the upcoming days.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday took a jibe at the Congress after its leader Udit Raj allegedly made derogatory remarks on President Droupadi Murmu.

Udit Raj had accused President Murmu of allegedly doing ‘chamchagiri’ while making controversial remarks about her on Wednesday.

“No country should get a President like Droupadi Murmu ji. Chamchagiri also has its limits. She says 70 per cent of the people eat Gujarat’s salt. She will get to know once she starts living by consuming salt only,” Udit Raj said in his tweet in Hindi.

Reacting to this, Poonawalla termed it ‘another steep low remark of congress’ by stating that he has used an unacceptable language for the first woman Adivasi President and asked if the party (Congress) endorses such an “insult of Adivasi samaj”.

“After Ajoy Kumar called President Draupadi Murmu as evil & then Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary used the term “Rashtrapatni” now Congress stoops to a new low! Udit Raj uses unacceptable language for the 1st woman Adivasi President! Does the Congress endorse this insult of Adviasi samaj,” Poonawalla tweeted.

Udit Raj’s remarks came days after President Murmu noted in a civic reception hosted by the Government of Gujarat in her honour in Gandhinagar on Monday that the state produces 76 per cent of the country’s salt and on a lighter note said that “the salt produced in Gujarat is consumed by all Indians” (yah kaha jaa sakta hai ki sabhi deshwasi Gujarat kaa namak khate hain).

Congress leader Ajoy Kumar on July 13 alleged that Droupadi Murmu represented a “very evil philosophy of India” and said that she should not be made a “symbol of Adivasi.”

However, his remarks on the President of India (then-nominee for the country’s topmost position) drew a sharp reaction from the BJP, as a result of which, hours later Ajoy Kumar clarified that he has an issue with NDA’s views and that is what he commented on.

He also said that Murmu is a good woman.

In the same month, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury sparked a controversy by calling the president as “Rashtrapatni” which invited severe criticism and regular adjournments in the Lok Sabha sessions.

BJP MPs including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani sought an “apology” from the Congress leader and the party for his alleged “sexist’ remarks on the President.
After facing a huge backlash and criticism, however, Chowdhury tendered an apology to President Murmu.