Prayagraj, May 12 -- Quoting the "tarikh pe tarikh... milti hai to sirf tarikh" dialogue from a Bollywood film, the Allahabad high court has said that while this reflects the common man's perception of delayed justice, the massive pendency of criminal cases in district courts is not merely the fault of judicial officers, but primarily that of the state government and the police. The court added that a judicial officer cannot decide cases without sufficient staff and the cooperation of the police to ensure the presence of the accused, witnesses and a proper forensic science laboratory report. The court issued a slew of directions to tackle the structural, administrative and procedural deficiencies crippling the district judiciary. In a decision dated May 7, justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal directed the state government to consider the issue of providing additional staff and infrastructure to district courts, considering the heavy workload of cases. The court also directed the state government to consider providing personal security officers to all district court judges like in Punjab and Haryana. The court also said the state government shall consider making UP FSL an autonomous department under its home department as requested by the Union ministry of home affairs, through communications. The state government shall endeavour to fill up vacancies in FSLs of UP, along with providing high-end instruments within one year, the court further said. Rejecting the bail application filed by Mevalal Prajapati, resident of Fatehpur, the court observed, "Many young judicial officers, who joined the judiciary though very honest and hardworking, having a motto to dispense justice after entering judicial service, found themselves unable to perform because of insufficient staff, non-cooperation by the police in the execution of court processes - summons ,warrants, etc, and faulty investigation and improper FSL reports." The court stressed that such judicial officers become frustrated and look to the high court for remedial measures, but even the high court cannot do anything. The court was hearing a bail application of a murder accused where a blood-stained screwdriver was recovered, but the investigation officer failed to seek a DNA matching query from the FSL to determine if the blood belonged to the deceased. Considering this glaring investigative lapse, the court had earlier summoned the DGP, the secretary, home and the director of FSL, Uttar Pradesh. The FSL director apprised the court that out of the 12 functioning labs in the state, only eight have DNA profiling facilities. The court said that due to these systemic delays, many criminals continue to commit offences without fear. The bench also referred to a report of the Association for Democratic Reform, which states that as of date, 49% of ministers in the UP government are involved in criminal cases, of which 44% are involved in serious criminal cases....