Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

A milestone in legal proceedings

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It has been under consideration for several years now, but on Wednesday, the State witnessed the application of video-conferencing facility in legal proceedings.

An eyewitness living in Dubai was examined before Judicial First Class Magistrate Jayakrishnan in connection with a murder case at the office of the State Information Technology Mission.

The two-hour proceedings, held inside a chamber at the IT Mission building in Vellayambalam, were attended by leading advocates from the prosecution and defence.

The case which was taken up occurred in January 1995, when Zakhir, student chairman of Government Law College and an activist of the Students Federation of India, was clobbered to death near Kazhakuttam by a 20-member gang owing allegiance to the People’s Democratic Party.

After nearly seven years of investigation and trial, eight accused were sentenced to life by Y. Thajudeen Koya, Fast Track Court I judge, in connection with the incident. Public prosecutor A. Rajasenan appeared on behalf of the prosecution in the case.

However, following an appeal made by the accused before the High Court, the conviction and sentence were set aside on the grounds that an important eyewitness in the case, Shajahan, currently settled in Dubai, was not examined by the court.

Justice Ramkumar and Justice Padmanabhan Nair who heard the appeal of the accused ordered the examination of the eyewitness through video conferencing.

An attempt by the Prisons Department in 2005 to introduce video conferencing in select courts and prisons in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kannur is yet to take off owing to lack of suitable amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure by the Union government.

Video conferencing equipment comprising a 29-inch colour television, a set-top box with an in-built camera and a microphone was installed in seven locations – two each at the Vanchiyoor court complex, the district jail, and the central prison and one each at the Attingal sub-jail and the courts at Neyyattinkara, Nedumangad and Attingal – at a cost of Rs.40 lakh, in association with the National Informatics Centre.

The decision to implement video conferencing in prisons was taken after 124 prisoners at the Kannur jail moved a petition before the High Court citing undue detention of remand and under-trial prisoners.

The prison officials believed it would avoid the ‘risky hassle’ of transporting prisoners to the court for every hearing.

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