Fire safety measures remain insufficient
DB directive on shifting Malkhana yet to be implemented
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 19: The District Court Complex at Janipur is facing grave risk as huge quantity of inflammable dumped in the Malkhana has not been disposed off during the past many years and existing fire safety equipments are grossly insufficient to deal with any critical situation. Moreover, there is no compliance to the directives of the Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court regarding shifting of Malkhana to some other place within the walls of the massive complex despite lapse of several years.
Reliable sources in the judiciary told EXCELSIOR that huge quantity of inflammable and hazardous articles and substances including liquor dumped in the Malkhana within the District Court Complex have not been disposed off by the concerned authorities during the past several years.
Neither the concerned authorities of the civil administration prayed before the courts for passing of orders for disposal of seized combustible material nor the Public Prosecutors paid any serious attention towards this important aspect as a result of which huge quantity of combustible is presently lying in the Malkhana, sources further said, adding “moreover, no serious attention has so far been paid towards segregation of combustible and non-combustible material to minimize the risk of any untoward incident”.
It is pertinent to mention here that whatever material is seized by the investigating agency in any case the same is kept in the Malkhana at the time of presentation of challan so as to ensure safety custody and to avoid tampering. However, due to absolute non-seriousness of the concerned Public Prosecutors the material remains un-disposed off even after the completion of judicial process in the cases.
“On one side the congested Malkhana is having large quantity of combustible material and on the other side the fire safety equipments are not sufficient to deal with any grave situation”, sources said, adding “this came to the fore during the inspection of Malkhana by a team of Judicial Officers, who were shocked to see its condition and poor upkeep”.
They further said, “the prevailing situation is notwithstanding the fact that on January 6, 2016 Division Bench of the High Court headed by the then Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar had passed direction for shifting of Malkhana from the District Court Complex to any other location so as to avoid any sort of risk to the Judicial Officers, Advocates and litigants”, adding “what to talk of construction of new Malkhana even no site has so far been finalized for the same”.
“A four weeks time-frame is granted for coming up with a proposal for construction of new Malkhana so that risk to the District Court Complex due to present Malkhana is avoided completely”, the DB had mentioned in the order passed in a Public Interest Litigation regarding security of courts.
“It is learnt that Principal District and Sessions Judge Jammu, while taking serious note of poor condition of Malkhana and availability of inflammables has issued directions for immediate disposal of the seized property in those cases wherein appeal period has expired so that Malkhana is decongested”, sources said, adding “he has also asked the Chief Engineer Roads and Buildings to get adequate fire safety equipments installed and necessary improvements carried out not only in Malkhana but also in record room, which has also been found in pitiable condition”.
Even Excise Magistrate has been asked by the Principal District and Sessions Judge to examine the cases and release the seized liquor in favour of Excise Department with the direction to the department to deposit the sale proceeds of such liquor in the court, sources said, adding directions have also been issued for immediately destroying huge quantity of liquor which cannot be put to use in any form.
“No doubt directives of the Principal District and Sessions Judge would immediately address the major concerns but as a long time measure steps are required to be initiated for construction of new Malkhana as was directed by the Division Bench headed by the then Chief Justice in the year 2016”, sources said.
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