Bailiffs compelled to work under adverse conditions

Enforcement officers have no weapons, transport to deliver court summons

RAWALPINDI:

The judicial bailiff and the compliance staff have been facing severe difficulties for the last 74 years due to a host of problems.

They are not being provided with handcuffs, weapons or transport to deliver court summons in most serious cases or during the arrest accused.

Most of the time, court bailiffs arrest the accused and bring them to the court on their own motorbike. Many times, the accused escape with handcuffs while taking advantage of the unarmed enforcement officers.

At present, there are 38 court bailiffs and 200 summon staff in the Rawalpindi district. They have been provided with only uniforms but no other basic facilities.

At present, 40 seats of these two cadres are vacant across the district. A group of court bailiffs and summons compliance staff told The Express Tribune that for compliance of summons each compliance staff gets only Rs500 per month which is embarrassingly low. In fact, it costs between Rs1,000 to Rs2,000 for them per case.

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“The biometric verification of every arrested accused is mandatory and for this, we have to pay Rs250 out of our own pocket to carry out the biometric test of the arrested accused,” said a bailiff requesting anonymity.

“We don't have government cellular-phone, government motorbikes, vehicles even don't have a single handcuff,” he said adding that the handcuffs are taken from the police station on a temporary basis and when the accused is caught, we have to return it to the police station.

Another bailiff said that for the arrest of every dangerous fugitive accused, “we are sent empty-handed and unarmed. Most of the time, the staff are attacked by the accused.

They said that government vehicles, handcuffs, motorbikes and Rs2,000 should be provided for each bailiff in a single case.

They further said that last month, one of our bailiffs arrested the accused and brought him on his motorbike, but the accused being powerful escaped with handcuffs and the bailiff also had to pay a fine of Rs4,000 for handcuffing.

They demanded that the court bailiff and the compliance staff should be given the regular force status and provided with police-style armoured vehicles, motorcycles and walkie-talkies.

At present, in all 36 districts of Punjab, including Rawalpindi, the compliance and bailiff sector is in a deterioration condition due to the lack of facilities.

Due to lack of funds, corruption and bribery in these sectors have become a necessity, they further added.

Government biometric machines should be installed in every district court and bailiff staff office for biometric verification of all the accused, they said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2022.