The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday said the criminal justice system in the State had been severely crippled owing to gross delay in getting forensic reports while expressing “shock” over the pendency of around 35,000 samples related to nearly 7,000 criminal cases for testing before the Forensic Sciences Laboratories (FSLs).
The court directed the State government and the director of FSL to come out with measures to swiftly fill up all the vacancies, set up all testing units in every FLS, fix timeline for completing forensic analysis, and provide FSLs with modern infrastructure and equipment.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued the directions on a petition, initiated suo motu. The petition was initiated based on an order passed by a judge who had pointed out that both the victims of crime as well as the accused were being deprived of the right to speedy justice, including for grant of bail and the…