Chandigarh, June 2: Taking a serious view of the “stock sureties” being accepted by courts for granting bail to persons accused of various offences, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday directed all courts in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to maintain a computerised record of all persons providing surety in bail matters along with the properties owned by them and endorsing original documents.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice AK Mittal and Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa also made it obligatory on the presiding officers of the courts concerned to verify the documents pertaining to the individual’s assets before accepting the surety and not to leave such work to staff under any circumstances.
The Bench also said the courts shall return the original title deeds to the surety after affixing the court stamp on such documents and making an endorsement regarding the surety offered by the owner of the property. A photocopy of such title deed would be retained on court record.
In an ongoing matter relating to chain snatchings, the court was earlier informed by the police that same persons have stood as surety in different cases by changing their address. The court had termed it as a serious problem.
While issuing bailable warrants against one Rekha Rani, who had stood as surety for six persons in as many cases, the Bench wanted all subordinate courts to ultimately proceed towards setting up a centralised databank of all such sureties so that the tendency to offer “stock sureties” could be curbed. Data about all sureties should be available at the click of a mouse, enabling courts to ascertain whether the prospective surety had previously stood surety for any accused or not.
Source Tribune India
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