Punjab and Haryana High Court orders states to increase forensic facilities

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana to take immediate steps to strengthen forensic facilities to expedite investigations of drug cases and avoid delays caused by inadequate resources.

In a bid to speed up and strengthen forensic examination processes, a bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma directed the two states to expedite the completion of recruitment, equipment acquisition and installation processes at their forensic laboratories and regional forensic science laboratories (RFSLs ). .

The direction came as a bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma observed that critical forensic infrastructure and advanced technology was not being fully utilized despite repeated assurances, blocking critical examination of evidence in NDPS cases and adversely affecting the outcome of cases.

The court said forensic laboratories in Punjab, including the primary FSL in Mohali and regional facilities in Bathinda, Amritsar and Ludhiana, were ordered to immediately install advanced testing equipment. These included the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry System, essential for the analysis of NDPS substances, and other sophisticated apparatus such as audio voice identification and automated ballistic identification systems. These systems, the court said, were crucial to ensure prompt and efficient testing, prevent any degradation of seized substances in storage, and facilitate timely legal proceedings.

Referring to Punjab’s delay in fulfilling its commitments, the bench observed that the state has indicated financial sanction for the purchase of equipment along with other advanced testing machinery. But the assurance had yet to materialize into functional facilities.

The court observed that an affidavit filed by Punjab reflected the approval of technical specifications for cyber forensic tools under the Nirbhaya Fund. However, the completion of financial procedures for the acquisition remained pending. The court stated that the relevant processes needed to be fully operational at the earliest and asked the Punjab Chief Secretary to confirm the installation through an affidavit. Haryana State has also been instructed to ensure deployment of state-of-the-art forensic capabilities for its FSLs along with sufficient staff to handle high volume cases.

In its detailed order, the court directed the chief secretaries of both the states to certify that recruitment efforts have been completed and staff deployed in all relevant FSL/RFSL centres. The bench has also mandated the establishment of regional FSLs at the district level to deal with the growing number of cases.

Before parting with the order, the court asked the Union Territory of Chandigarh, in addition to the two states, to lay down standard operating procedures (SOPs) for speedy transmission, testing and return of incriminating evidence to the courts. SOPs, intended to protect the integrity of evidence during handling, required resealing by forensic experts before the items were transferred back to authorities. The bench also ordered that a dedicated steering committee, comprising senior police officers, oversee the implementation of the SOP to ensure that procedures for evidence handling and cold storage are aligned with operational protocols.