J’khand HC issues notice to judicial magistrate for flouting SC directives

Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Tuesday issued a notice to a magistrate in the Ranchi civil court for non-compliance with guidelines and directions passed by the Supreme Court about the release of an accused person in a complaint case.While hearing the case, the court of Justice Ananda Sen called for the records of the complaint case pending before judicial magistrate Rakesh Ranjan Kumar in the Ranchi civil court. Justice Sen then directed high court registrar general Manoj Kumar to ensure that the accused, Ajay Munda, was not sent to jail by the magistrate and to have the records of the complaint case brought to the high court by 4.30 pm on Tuesday.Earlier on June 30, Justice Sen, while hearing the anticipatory bail application of Munda, directed him to appear before the court of the magistrate and surrender himself in the complaint case over a civil dispute regarding the ownership of a piece of land.According to the Supreme Court guidelines, an accused on surrendering himself in a complaint petition before a magistrate ought to have been released by the magistrate. However, in the instant case, the magistrate instead of releasing Munda, took him into custody.The instance was mentioned before the court of Justice Sen by Munda's counsel informing him about Munda's custody upon which the HC called for the registrar general Kumar to be present in court. The judge has called for the records of the complaint case to be placed before his court on Wednesday.He has also sought an explanation from the magistrate the reason for detaining accused Munda. It was made clear in the order of the high court that failure to comply with Supreme Court guidelines by magistrates can also attract departmental action from the high court.