HYDERABAD: Former Chief Justice of India Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, while underlining the importance of forensic science, said that it should be given utmost prominence in all parts of justice to unravel the truth, because science will not lie, circumstances may not but witnesses could.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the first national consultation on ‘effective utilisation of forensic science towards ensuring rule of law, providing inclusive justice, enhancing public trust’ at Nalsar University of Law of Shamirpet on Saturday.
He expressed concern at the practice of the criminal justice system whereby the accused is arrested and imprisoned as an undertrial, based on the prosecution record without taking into consideration forensic reports.
Explaining a situation, Justice Lalit said a doctor was left to languish in jail for several years under IPC 498-A, after his wife died two years into their marriage, even after the post-mortem confirmed that the woman had succumbed to a hole in her heart.
Pressing for establishments of more forensic labs and getting reports early, Justice Lalit recalled that when he was practicing, only the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) had a DNA analysing facility.
In his virtual keynote address, former CJI Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah highlighted the need for using newer and more resourceful modes of investigation and integration of science and technology. He said that scientific evidence is at the core for ensuring efficient justice. He lamented that the country was very poor when it came to forensic labs, when the requirement was for more of them.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, Chief Justice of Telangana and Chancellor of Nalsar University of Law, said that the seminar highlighted the significant contribution of forensic science in criminal cases and said that it should be used at every level. To drive home the point, he said earlier there were 200- 300 poaching cases of rhinos every year in Assam. That has now come to near-zero, thanks to reliance on forensic evidence.
In his presidential address, former governor of Tamil Nadu, P.S. Ramamohan Rao said that the country has made good progress in forensic sciences, whose role was significant in both adversarial and inquisitorial systems of adjudication.
Former judges of the Supreme Court Justice M. Jagannadha Rao and Justice P. Venkatrami Reddi and DGP Anjani Kumar also spoke on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Dr Gandhi P.C. Kaza briefed about the 15-year journey of Truth Labs, which collaborated with premier academic institutions, courts and business and financial institutions in India and abroad. He also announced that they were instituting a gold medal for masters courses in forensic sciences at Nalsar Univeristy.
The inaugural session was followed by a technical session featuring eminent panelists on the effective utilisation of forensic science. They emphasized the need to raise public investment in forensic science and for a focused training in the subject.
