Patna HC directs Judicial Academy to give training to Magistrates

Patna (Bihar) – The Patna High Court asked the Director of the Judicial Academy at Patna to train Judicial Officers in matters of custody and remand applications. The order was passed by the Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay in a writ petition, after noticing the casual remand orders passed by a Magistrate in violation of Supreme Court guidelines.

As per the law laid down by the Supreme Court in a case, a Magistrate while authorising detention of the accused is obliged to record its satisfaction with regards to the necessity for detention, before remanding him to custody.

In the present case, however, the Magistrate concerned had been remanding the petitioner to custody, without satisfying himself with regards to the necessity for arrest. In fact, the remand orders were passed routinely for about 3 months, flouting the safeguards of detention laid down by the Supreme Court.

The Patna High Court said in its judgement, “We do not doubt that at this point of time, the petitioner’s detention is absolutely illegal and as such the writ petition needs to be allowed. As such we direct release of the petitioner Kundan Kumar forthwith … The Registrar General of this Court is directed to forthwith communicate this order to the Director, Judicial Academy, Bihar, Patna for imparting training to the Judicial Officers as to how the officers must deal with the remand applications”.