A PIL has been filed in the Chhattisgarh High Court over the meagre allowance being paid to people who come to testify in court.
The PIL has been filed by retired District Judge Surendra Tiwari through advocate Manay Nath Thakur. According to the PIL, in any criminal case, there is a provision to give allowance to the witness by the government. Government officials like doctors, policemen are also included along with the private witnesses.
The petition alleged that the allowance given by the government is very low. At present, an allowance of only Rs 100 is being given to the witness, because of this witnesses are not interested in giving testimony in court. It was further alleged that a witness, who lives on daily wages has to bear a loss of income, since the witness has to pay rent, coming from far-flung village leaving their daily work, for deposing as a witness.
In the petition, it was also pointed out that most of the witnesses do not even know that there is a provision of giving allowance to witnesses in criminal cases, due to this, the cases are not able to testify properly and there is a possibility of cases being affected.
Due to the apathy of the witnesses, there is a difficulty in getting the convicts punished because of the delay in the disposal of cases. On such grounds, the petition has demanded adequate allowance be given to witnesses. So that in any case the witness does not get into trouble.
In this case, the Court has issued notice to the respondents, including the state government, to submit their reply.