IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 5815 of 2008 Date of Decision: 18.08.2008 H.C.Arora ......Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others ....Respondents Present : Petitioner in person Mr. H.S.Sidhu, Addl. Advocate General, Punjab CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.S.THAKUR,CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURYA KANT ***** T.S.Thakur, Chief Justice (Oral) The grievance in this writ petition primarily arises out of non- production of 21,990 under trial prisoners from nine different jails in the State of Punjab on account of lack of police escorts. This, according to the petitioner, has resulted in avoidable delay in the disposal of the trials by the courts concerned. The petitioner prays for a mandamus directing respondents no.1 and 2 to conduct an enquiry against the Superintendents of the jails concerned. Having heard Mr. Arora, petitioner in person and Mr. Sidhu, Additional Advocate General, Punjab appearing for the respondents, we see no reason to interfere in the exercise of our public interest jurisdiction. We say so because lack of proper escorts to produce under trial prisoners before the concerned Courts is not an unknown feature. Such non production at times arises out of reasons that are unavoidable. While we may not favour non production on account of non availability of police escorts, the real CWP No. 5815 of 2008 [2] remedy lies at least in part, in providing electronic video conferencing for production of undertrial prisoners for remand. We are told that such video conferencing is not presently available in the States of Punjab and Haryana. Pending availability of such a facility, the authorities shall ensure that under trial prisoners are produced in the courts concerned and non production avoided as far as possible. With these observations, this writ petition is disposed of. No costs. (T.S.THAKUR) CHIEF JUSTICE (SURYA KANT) 18.08.2008 JUDGE 'ravinder'