SUPREME COURT RULING on certain Constitutional Questions in Relation to Police Commissioners Powers Goes Viral on the Web. I did not have the benefit of reading the whole judgment but would like to embark on a face value personal assessment based on the Supreme Courts answers to the questions imposed on it. There could be deeper and compelling reasons appealed for those answers to the questions raised but from the face of it i have reservations for only two questions and their answers. As i have indicated, my views could be fallible and prone to attack and corrections,as i did not have the benefit of reading the whole judgment. Thus, i am unable to collectively put the whole judgment in perspective. These are incidental setbacks. However, being that as it may, Im entitled,as a matter of course, to opine that if the answers to the questions are quit contrary to each other, the reasons invoked could also be contrasting. Below are the two questions and their answers which are of interest to me. I cant digest them together.That is answers to questions 8 and 13. They just cant fit. They have the potential to react violently to each other.Here they are; 13 Whether, in appropriate cases, the Commissioner of Police may make decisions or issue directions or orders in relation to a warrant of arrest: (a) being withdrawn; (b) not being executed. (a) YES(b) NO My respectively opinion is both answers should have been in the negative since it is clearly contrary to the the one below; 8. Whether the Commissioner of Police or any other member of the Police Force has power under Section 197(2) [of the Constitution] to direct or control another member of the Police Force from executing a warrant of arrest issued by a Court of competent jurisdiction. NO Permitting the Commissioner to direct a police officer to withdraw a warrant is nothing falling short of issuing directions not to have it executed. Secondly, a warrant of arrest is issued by the court and thus, it is a court order and it would be inappropriate for the police to withdraw but he (the police officer) can, in appropriate cases, withdraw the application or complaint upon which warrant was issued. But even withdrawal of such is also not quit good. It defeats the whole purpose of criminal justice administration. No person on this land including the commander of commissioner must be given any powers that carries the potential to thwart, interfere and disturb the criminal process. Only the courts can discharge a warrant of arrest. Based on the above a slip rule application, if possible, can be filled to rectify this seemingly glaring errors. We cant continue to live in confusion and ambiguity. Yesterday, a Lawyer representing the PM accused the Chairman of ITFS, Sam Koim, of misleading the Public on the effects the the Supreme Court Ruling on her Facebook Wall. She claimed the commissioner has wider discretionary powers to direct a police officer to withdraw a warrant of arrest based on the answers to question 13 above. So we can clearly see that the answer to question 8 is sharply contrasting. For the supreme court to permit the Commissioner to order a Police officer to withdraw a warrant of arrest is just another definition of preventing the execution of the warrant which is prohibited by the same court. The supreme court itself needs to fix this or we need legislative intervention. Just my thought. Ta.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 02:03:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015