Delhi Court Asks Accused To Stand With Hands In Air As Punishment For Wasting Its Time
While dealing with a case alleging criminal trespass, a Delhi Court has asked four accused persons to “stand in the court with their hands straight in the air till its rising” as a punishment for wasting judicial time and failing to furnish their bail bonds in time.
Judicial Magistrate First Class Saurabh Goyal of Dwarka Courts held the accused persons guilty for contempt of court proceedings and convicted them for the offence under Section 228 (intentionally insulting or interrupting a public servant while they are engaged in judicial proceeding) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
On May 06, the accused persons were directed to furnish their bail bonds on July 15, failing which the judge said that Rs. 15,000 costs shall be imposed on them.
On July 15, when the matter was fixed for pre trial evidence, the Court noted that despite waiting and calling the matter twice from 10:00 AM till 11:40 AM, the bail bonds were not furnished by the accused persons.
“For wasting the time of the court, which is in contempt of the order duly promulgated on last date of hearing, the accused persons are hereby held guilty for contempt of court proceedings and are convicted for offence U/s 228 IPC. They are directed to stand in the court till the rising of this court with their hands straight in the Air,” the Court ordered.
Further, the judge said that despite waiting since morning, the bail bonds were not furnished by one of the accused Kuldeep. Therefore, the Court ordered that he be taken into custody and remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody.
However, later an application was filed by the accused seeking bail and stating that surety was available. The surety bonds were then furnished which were accepted by the Court and he was released from judicial custody.
The development ensued in a complaint case filed in 2018 by one Harkesh Jain against accused persons- Anil, Ram Kumar, Anand, Kuldeep, Rakesh & Upasana Sehrawat. Notably, accused Ram Kumar and Anil expired during pendency of the proceedings.
The complainant had alleged that in March 2018, the accused persons tired to grab his property and constructed an illegal structure after tresspassing on the said property.
It was alleged that the accused persons threatened him for his life and hatched a preplaned criminal consipracy to grab his property.
The complainant had prayed that the accused be summoned for the offences under Section 351 (assault), 441 (criminal trespass), 442 (house trespass), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal intent) of IPC.
In September last year, the Court summoned the accused persons for the offences under Section 441, 506 and 34 of IPC.