Magistrate calls for law enforcers to be fair in court

A MAGISTRATE has stressed the importance of fair representation in courts as a vital part of delivering justice.
Senior magistrate Cosmas Bidar shared this when he gave a final adjournment for police to provide a case file for a man who appeared in court accused of abusing an eight-year-old in November last year.
“The name of the game is fairness, fairness to the person who is in court and to the person who is complaining,” Bidar said. “We have to be fair on both sides so that at the end of the day justice is served to everybody.
“Since the case was started in November of last year, we do not have a file. If the matter is struck out because there is no file, we will never know whether there will be a file later on. Then the defendant will be arrested and charged again.
“In the event that nothing has happened and he has no charge, subsequently then there may be a case of gross injustice as the court did had not take the opportunity to consider the case on its facts and to decide whether or not there is evidence to support this case.”
Bidar said the allocated time for police to carry out investigations to produce a case file was three months and questioned whether there was a file in existence.
“There is a serious concern by the relatives as well as others in seeing that this case gets through the process and is dealt with and justice is done,” he said.
“In the meantime, prosecution will take appropriate steps to liaise with the informant (officer in-charge) as to whether there is a file.”