Tamil Nadu State Public Prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohamed Jinnah has impressed upon his colleagues the need to treat police personnel with the utmost dignity.
In a communication addressed to the law officers, including additional public prosecutors, government advocates (criminal side) and assistant public prosecutors in the principal seat of the Madras High Court in Chennai, the High Court’s Madurai Bench as well as all district courts spread across Tamil Nadu, the SPP said, it had come to his notice that a few public prosecutors treated police personnel, who approached them for instructions in various criminal cases, shabbily, and use abusive words.
Expressing deep concern over such behaviour, Mr. Jinnah has insisted upon giving of due respect to the law enforcers, and treating them humanely.
“I request you all to ensure that the police personnel, attending our offices, are properly seated and they shall not be differentiated by the post they hold. They all shall be treated with dignity as they come only for giving the information required by us to conduct cases before the court of law. The police personnel should be treated humanely for they too suffer from mental stress and work pressure like us,” the circular read.
Mr. Jinnah said that a flaw in investigation need not become a reason for a prosecutor to treat police personnel unfairly. “In case, if they have conducted perfunctory investigation, it shall be brought to the notice of the Superintendent of Police or Deputy Commissioner of Police concerned for setting it in order,” the SPP said and requested the prosecutors to mend their attitudes towards police personnel.
The SPP also stated that justice could be upheld, and the common man could be protected from criminals, only if the police and the public prosecutors worked in tandem. Since the primary duty of the prosecutors was to assist the courts in rendering justice, this duty could not be performed effectively without necessary instructions from the police personnel concerned, he pointed out.
