Today, the Uttrakhand High Court has made a scathing comment on the Principal Secretary Justice for not appealing against the murder accused acquitted by the lower court in the murder case of Kotdwar advocate Sushil Raghuvanshi. The court gave him a warning and directed him to record this in his service record and fixed the hearing on October 18.

Earlier, in September 2017, advocate Sushil Raghuvanshi was murdered by attackers when he was going to the court. Vinod Lala and others were accused of murder. In March this year, seven accused were acquitted by the ADJ Court of Kotdwar. When the accused in this sensational murder case were acquitted, the government did not file an appeal in the High Court, then the deceased's wife Rekha Raghuvanshi filed an appeal in the High Court.

While hearing the case, the division bench of senior judges Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Pankaj Purohit asked the Principal Secretary the reason for this and was told that the opinion was not given by the District Government Advocate. The court has said in its order that this is indecent for a judicial officer posted on the post of Principal Secretary. We disagree with the stand taken by the Principal Secretary.

According to the Court, in government offices, especially in the Secretariat, the paper in question is examined at various levels. Each officer gives handwritten comments on the office note and his comments reflect his thought process. These notes give an idea of ​​the inputs on the basis of which decisions are taken. Although officials at different levels may express different views on a given subject, the final decision is taken by the Secretary or Principal Secretary of the department.

Unfortunately, due process was not followed in this case. This indicates that either the Principal Secretary Law is not capable of taking independent decisions or he shirks the responsibility of taking decisions. The court has warned the Principal Secretary to be careful in future. 

Further, he also said that a copy of this order should be kept in the service records of the Principal Secretary under his intimation. The next hearing on the appeal has been fixed for December 18.