The Manipur High Court has directed the State Government to fill up vacant posts in forensic science laboratory immediately.
Giving out the directive, the Manipur High Court said that “delay in submission of forensic reports directly impacted on the disposal of criminal cases”.
The directive was passed by a two-judge bench of the High Court comprising of Chief Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice A Bimol.
The Court was hearing an affidavit submitted by the director of forensic science laboratory.
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The director of forensic science laboratory in his affidavit mentioned that due to lack of manpower and division officers, there have been delays in completing the forensic report leading to piling up of criminal cases.
It may be mentioned here that one post of Scientific Officer and two posts of Scientific Assistant are vacant in the Chemistry division while two more posts of Scientific Assistant are vacant in the Toxicology division.
On the other hand, in the ballistics division and the biology and documents division of the forensic science laboratory, there is a need for increasing manpower to dispose of a huge number of pending cases.
The Manipur High Court has asked the State Government to immediately fill up the vacant post in the Forensic laboratory and submit a report on action taken in regards to the directive by February 11, 2021.