In a significant move, the Delhi police is all set to do away with the system of sending letters rogatory — a formal request to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance — through city courts to their counterparts in the United States.
The move, it is believed, will speed up investigation of Indian cases with a connection to the United States. The investigating officers of the Delhi police can now directly approach the appropriate US authorities by sending a “request for assistance” duly forwarded through the legal division of the Union home ministry.
A highly-placed source said the matter was recently discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Delhi police commissioner Alok Kumar Verma, who reportedly told his officers that they could directly approach the United States without going through the complex and lengthy time-consuming legal procedures. From now onwards, the “request for assistance” method will be used by the police to seek information and evidence in cases from the United States.
The matter was reportedly discussed at length after the special commissioner (women safety, airport and modernisation) informed the city police chief that during her training in Washington, she had interacted on the subject with a senior US department of justice official. Mark Tellitocci, head of criminal division of the Office of International Affairs, had interacted with her on Multi-Legal Assistance Treaty.
She told Mr Verma that Mr Tellitocci had informed her instead of resorting to the cumbersome and time consuming letter rogatory method, investigating officers could approach the United States through a “request for assistance” duly forwarded through the legal division of the Union home ministry. Mr Verma is said to have instructed his officers to send any such request to the United States in the set format, as provided by Mr Tellitocci.
Till now, the police used to seek assistance from their counterparts in the United States through letter rogatory issued by local courts.
The most common remedies sought by letter rogatory are service of process and recording or collection of evidence. Also, letter rogatory is used when a person wants to take action against another person located in another country. Another reason is where a court could require assistance from a foreign court is to obtain evidence from a witness.
