Standing Order 15-2 - Criminal Trial Scheduling Discovery: Fill & Download for Free

Update 12/28/19: The caregiver, Sherri Watring, was convicted 12/19/19 by jury trial of two “Class A” Felonies for Elder Abuse and Exploitation, and a Petit Theft conviction:Click on the FB story to view the details: CBS 2 BoiseAbuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm- penalty up to 10 years and $25K fineExploitation of a Vulnerable Adult that exceeds one thousand dollars- penalty up to 10 years and $25K finePetit Theft (note: stealing urn with ashes)- up to 365 days jail timeShe will be sentenced on March 6, 2020. She admitted that she threw dad’s cremains away in an unknown location. When her home was searched, she returned the stolen empty urn to detectives. She was determined to have misappropriated funds from our parents in access of $100,000.00 from 2016 to 2018, per the courtroom discovery and attorney’s case presentation derived from detectives investigatory results.Sherri Watring is now a Felon and will carry this title with her as long as she lives. She is 53 yrs, I and family are now waiting to learn what prison time and financial penalties she will be given by the judge in- about 10 weeks. We expect no victim compensation from her for the exploitation, but we are hoping for justice for our parents, and that Sherri Watring will no longer prey on any other vulnerable persons._________________________________________________________________________________________Update 5/15/19: The caregiver has been in custody since April 7th. She failed to appear for her 1st arraignment April 3rd and the judge issued a bench warrant with a 2nd bond- additional to her original bond. She apparently could not make bail this time, she has remained incarcerated.We attended her 2nd scheduled arraignment last week, and she will be officially charged in district court on 5/17/2019!We will know then if she pleads not guilty and this goes to trial for two felony charges of Elder Abuse and Elder Exploitation. Each charge has up to 25 years as max. penalty. If she wants a plea bargain to admit her guilt we will insist on some years incarceration plus restitution to the Howell estate. After this is over, I will describe what we know she did (beyond neglect), and what she was found guilty of. We waited for 15 months, we believe some justice will be paid for the crimes.—————————————————————————————————————Yes, I fired a caregiver who had been criminally negligent in the oversight of my elderly parents, 94 and 88 years. Father had some mobility limitations but could still fix his breakfast and get out to the mailbox using his walker. Mom was bedridden and legally blind for nearly six years due to macular degeneration. Both were fully dependent on her for health and nutritional care.We found Mom half starved with extensive bedsores and serious deep wounds after we learned Father had died a week earlier and the caregiver did not notify any family. We live about two miles away, the last time we had chatted with Father was the morning before he passed. Father had recently had a check-up and the doctor gave him thumbs up for his good health. Mom had been put on Hospice by the caregiver two days after Father died. We were shocked by all this.Our parents had granted the caregiver Power of Attorney, and she was quick to have a protection order placed on the family saying my husband threatened her with a gun. We could not access Mom or come near the house. We got a court order for guardianship/conservatorship to get into their home after 14 days. It took literally four hours to have this woman removed since she claimed POA. Understandably, the police are not really able to discern legal documents. We provided the copies of our court order and they had to have them examined at the station before they could execute the order. We had to stand back and “allow the caregiver to pack her things” in private. Unfortunately, she not only packed a box of her things, but she also took Father’s ashes which had been delivered the previous day and their recent financial paperwork. She put a comforter on top of the packed box, grabbed what she called “her drugs” from a cabinet on the way out, and the police let her leave. She did leave some injectable anesthetic behind, which we have a witness who watched her use it. The caretaker has no medical authority, no certification, she was hired 7 years prior as a housekeeper and to drive the parents to Dr. appointments or shop for groceries. She performed surgical stitching to Mom’s vagina- we weres shocked to learn! My God, what evil guides this, person.She had most of Dad’s financial records in her home at the time which we discovered later after a police search and seizure. She was keeping records away from Dad so he didn’t learn about her embezzlements. We learned about $35k of defaulted credit card debt, some since January 2017, which is why she took away their phones or turned off incoming calls. these were collectors she had to hide from Dad. Several of the cards were for Mom after she became blind, so we know this was financial exploitation and fraud.We later learned the caregiver robbed our parents financially and took funds from their savings, checking and investments. She also sold, gave away and/or hid most of their valuable possessions. She even emptied their safety deposit box taking a gold Krugerrand, any valuables and important documents like Father’s Military records, and their wills. She took our mothers wedding rings for gawd's sake, and we are still learning what else is missing.You see this kind of thing on television about people who commit crimes for money while taking advantage of the elderly. You never expect it will happen to your family. Be watchful, and carefully vet anyone you put in a place of control over old folks.Update 4/1/2019The caregiver was picked-up on a felony warrant and had an arraignment last month. She has a court hearing with her attorney this Wednesday.The prosecuting attorney charged1 count: Adult-Abuse or Neglect of a Vulnerable Person:2 counts: Adult-Exploitation of a Vulnerable Person (over $1000@)I can only pray justice will be served, it has been a long wait though we did not ask for this criminal indictment. The state investigated based on what the Hospice Care Nurses and Doctor reported to district adult protection services.We are thankful to everyone who has helped to ensure this woman NEVER does this to any other elderly person. I expect she will not be able to work in eldercare after the courts process her case, that is my hope, plus to ensure she is no longer a threat to any vulnerable person.

Note: I also posted this on an author blog I write for.NOTE: This is an email I set to the Kankakee Daily Journal in response to an article they ran titled “Observations from my foxhole.” I’m posting it here because it will either be routed to the bit bucket or dramatically shredded there. The article was demanding an end to shelter at home and encouraging people to ignore it.Let me be upfront and say that I don’t subscribe to the “GOP Propaganda Tabloid Daily (which doesn’t print daily)” — my parents do. Whenever I’m back home taking a good Trump and voting at least twice, sometimes it is the only thing around to read. If this was the olden days with outdoor plumbing, I guess I could also put the paper to good use. Otherwise it is mostly a waste of trees, save for the couple of pages of local news. The only thing worthwhile they ever published from a syndicated point of view was Malcolm Burko. Sadly, he is no longer on the sunny side of the daisies.I debated quite a while about responding to your “Observations From My Foxhole” article. Some people are just gullible enough to watch the Fox Fiction Network and they simply can’t be helped.What finally forced this tipping point was Trump suggesting people inject or ingest disinfectant to cure the virus. This was not a sarcastic comment, despite his later attempts to backpedal. This was the Imbecile-in-Chief being the Imbecile-in-Chief. I say that as a Republican. I was also deeply saddened to hear about the spikes in poison hotline calls resulting from that inexcusable suggestion.Contrary to what the White House claims, we don’t have enough testing. I have no medical license or degree. I’m just a traveling IT consultant and author who has worked on some medical devices and been in a few lab situations. Viewing this strictly from the “coverage testing” point of view (an IT term for measuring the amount of code testing procedures being exercised), we need the following to have “enough” testing.Enough tests to test every single person in the United States once per month.Enough tests so that every nursing home and healthcare worker can be tested at the start of each shift.Enough to test every patient entering a medical facility.That’s the minimum for enough. The healthcare workers need a 10- to 15-minute turn around on those tests. No, just having enough cotton swabs to do it isn’t enough; you need all of the chemical agents and testing devices.Having groups of people gathering together in protest without wearing masks and standing way closer than six feet apart, e.g., that Jones character in various videos and photos, shows extreme disrespect for our currently overworked healthcare workers. It’s the equivalent of spitting on a veteran returning from a war. You can be against the war all you want, but you can’t spit on the veterans. They went where they were ordered to go. These same people disregarding the social distancing and shelter-at-home orders will be the ones demanding they get the best care when they fall victim. Part of me believes it is sad that medical facilities cannot refuse them, saying “stupidity isn’t curable.”Shelter in place sucks. Being back on the family farm, I can at least help with planting and mowing. In a tractor cab out in a field, I’m about as socially isolated as one can get. Someone living in a half a closet, which New York City calls a “studio” apartment has got to be going insane. Still, it’s the only weapon we have. Sheltering at home, washing hands often, and disinfecting surfaces is currently our only real defense. Soon we will all have to wear some kind of mask if we go out in public. It will suck, but it must be done.Mass re-opening will just be throwing more dry leaves on a fire before it’s gone out. You will set off a blaze that will spread death to my and many other people’s parents. You don’t have that right.Meat packing plants have had to shut down. Despite precautions and protections in place, the number of infected got too high. Hopefully you watched “60 Minutes” last weekend and saw the story of how the Detroit auto plants now making medical devices require everyone to wear a wristwatch device that buzzes when you get closer than six feet to another person. It not only buzzes, but records who you came into contact with. That’s scary, but will be the new norm for quite some time. Scarier still is Google and Apple teaming up to track people’s phones and how far apart they are. Rent the 1984 version of “1984” while you are trapped indoors.1984 (1984) - IMDbI’m really tired of people regurgitating the baseless conspiracy theory that COVID-19 came out of a lab in Wuhan. I’m also deeply saddened that current testing capabilities cannot test when a person was exposed or to which strain. The people who study the genome of viruses long ago debunked the Wuhan conspiracy theory, and still it keeps being regurgitated. Yes, the Chinese government has a deep-seated culture of “don’t tell anyone I shat my pants.” Yes, they try to cover up every catastrophic failure they have — just like our current Imbecile-in-Chief continually declares truth “fake news.” The two really aren’t any different.Here is a bit of reality that will take a few years and much better testing capabilities to prove. Coronavirus has been in America since November 2018 and possibly earlier. Not the current deadly strain — one of the precursors. Feel free to go look up the current symptom list for COVID-19.Coronavirus symptoms: What’s the difference between a dry and wet cough?—While a fever is the most common symptom of Coronavirus (Covid-19), about two-thirds (67.7%) of patients get a cough — specifically a dry cough, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).“A dry cough is what we call a non-productive cough, because no phlegm is brought up,” Javaid tells The Post. It is usually characterized by a scratchy throat.—During November 2018 there were people staying home sick, then coming into work saying “it wasn’t really the flu, just a really bad cough and I felt icky.” I heard the same things during flu season in 2019.I’m an IT consultant who has had to do a lot of analysis in his 30+ year career. Viruses, like weeds and some humans, evolve. This thing has been here a while, hopping from host to host, finding the weakest host to gain a foothold, then learning how to be a more efficient killing machine.On some level, all creatures are parasites. When the parasites live in harmony, it is called an ecosystem. Putting it in the simplest of terms: cows eat grass and drink water; they poop and pee on the pasture, providing nutrients for the grass. As long as they never eat more grass than the pasture can produce, it’s a circle. Yes, weather plays a part. I said I was using the simplest of terms.I really kind of hate it when a family of diseases is given a name. HIV (AIDS) is one name, and in the minds of many it is a single disease. In reality it is many different strains. It is also one disease we have never defeated. You may have seen commercials for a “prep” drug to help prevent getting HIV. Despite all of the money and research thrown at that disease early on, that’s as close as we have to a vaccine. The “manage it” drugs have reportedly gotten better, but there still is not a bottle of something you can take to get rid of it. Take a moment and think just how long ago it was that Rock Hudson was in the news for AIDS.We finally have a vaccine for 2009 Influenza A/H1N1, also called “swine flu.”CDC H1N1 Flu | Vaccine General InfoWhen the Spanish Flu (another H1N1) hit in 1918, it was a novel virus. In this case, “novel” means it was too new for anyone to have developed immunity.Covid-19 is a novel virus. I just don’t think it is quite as novel as researchers currently believe. Again, I’m making a non-medical observation based on something going around for at least two flu seasons where quite a few people stayed home with a bad dry cough, feeling icky for days.One thing that bothers me are the images on some news broadcasts about victims in mass graves. From the images, it looked like they were just using some kind of white body bag. It’s not so much an issue with mass graves as much as not having heard any research on how long the virus can live in a human body after death. I always fear the mass burial vs. cremation solution when the deaths are from a pandemic. Yes, mass graves are easier and cheaper, but . . . it could be like toxic waste, leaching out and coming back to get us later.COVID-19 isn’t the first of its kind to go on a killing spree. You may remember Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). COVID-19 is actually SARS-CoV-2 — or as some may call it, “the little brother.” SARS is listed as having run from November 16, 2002 (discovery) through some time in 2004, so hopes of COVID-19 going away in a couple of months seems to be mere wishful thinking. There is a distinct possibility we could still be dealing with this when the next flu season rolls around. Dealing with a new wave while still trying to crest this wave.Coronavirus: What can we learn from the Spanish flu?Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus - WikipediaThere is a lot of talk about “2nd wave” going on now. My personal belief is that we are currently on at least our third wave. The first two were those “really bad coughs and icky feelings” nobody thought much about over the past few years. To quote Londo Mollari from “Babylon 5”:“Big concerns grow from small concerns. You plant them, water them with tears, fertilize them with unconcern. If you ignore them, they grow.”The first two (possibly more) attempts at gaining a foothold in the human species didn’t work out well for Coronavirus. People got over it and we ignored it. It learned. It adapted. This time it was a lit match in dry grass. All of this talk about a “vaccine soon” has me pointing to HIV. I remember hearing that same phrase when HIV was making headlines and raging through the human species, contaminating the blood supply, causing widespread panic and homophobia. To date, as far as I know, we don’t have a cure or a vaccine. I won’t hold my breath for a COVID-19 vaccine that actually works showing up any time soon. I’m also a bit leery of the SARS vaccine that was never sold.SARS Vaccine Could Be Stopgap Measure Against the New Coronavirus, Study SuggestsI’m not anti-vaccine. I just want those “burdensome regulations” put to good use via lengthy clinical trial so we can really measure the downside. I also want a vaccine to be north of 80% effective, instead of the 30% the flu vaccine was one year. That year did more to stop people from getting the flu shot than any conspiracy theory ever could. That was an epic fail. If you really can’t understand why I, and most thinking individuals, like those “burdensome regulations” and lengthy clinical trials, read up on Zantac and cancer. That trial process was obviously too short.Zantac is prescribed 15 million times a year. So how did it become a potential cancer risk?SARS got a foothold in China and got out. The never-admit-you-shat-your-pants Chinese government tried to hush it up. Once it was worldwide, they couldn’t hide it anymore. No different than Russia trying to cover up Chernobyl. Yeah, like radioactive waste that high in the atmosphere wasn’t going to be picked up by sensors in other countries. Even the cheap sensors can detect truckloads. On the plus side, those countries now know the sensors actually work.China will be, for the foreseeable future, where these pandemics originate. It has a third-world culture in many areas despite having an industrial and technology base. Many Chinese make enough money to travel and send their kids to college in America and other countries. Adding insult to injury is this fetish that CEOs have for off-shoring factory jobs to China, which leads to a massive amount of shipping coming back.Yes, I heard the story about the NIH funding Coronavirus research in Wuhan. It’s no conspiracy theory. You have a high-tech lab not far from a third-world culture (wet markets); not too far from a lot of bats. Given what happened with SARS, it also makes sense to have “boots on the ground” so intelligence can get a heads up when another pandemic has taken root.I haven’t worked in a lab setting in a long time. What I remember from what training I had years ago is that you typically look for either a common weak strain or a common weakness. Common weak strains can be grown in large quantities and used as a vaccine to train the human body. Scan through the history books for a time when we used cowpox to vaccinate against smallpox. A common weakness is flaws in the DNA or required nutrients one can exploit to wipe out 80+% of the most deadly strains.cowpox vaccine for smallpox at DuckDuckGoTheoretically, if an entity has only one food source and you eliminate the food source, you can starve the entity to death. I say theoretically, because that approach didn’t work out so well for HIV.Read up on the discovery of CRISPR. Our antibodies actually “snip” a portion of viral DNA and add it to themselves. This appears to be how it both remembers and kills more efficiently next time.Nobody should eat a bat.Having said that, we do need to fund research on bats. Wuhan is a good place to do it. It has a lot of wild bats —enough that people catch and eat them. When you read up on just how many diseases deadly to humans can be carried by bats, you realize there is no way anyone could eat a bat safely without charring it to a lump of ash.We need to intensely study bats — not because they are the only mammals that fly, but because they have developed a physiology that can carry all of these diseases without any obvious impact on them. Putting this in “War of the Worlds” terms, bats are the humans and we are the Martians. If you remember, weapons didn’t kill the Martians. It was the common cold.So, not far from a lab in Wuhan is a geographic region with lots of bats and basically a third-world culture (wet markets). When you combine that with a don’t-tell-anyone-I-shat-my-pants government philosophy, you get pandemics. This we know. This we can defend against if we have boots on the ground in labs and hospitals to give us a heads up. In fact, we did know this.Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: SourcesThe boots on the ground passed this information back. Not only a SARS-like, but a SARS-based virus had lit the pile of dried leaves and grass on fire in China. The fact that this happens to be the best location to research such things also provides us an early warning system. Sadly, you have to have an actual President instead of a Twitter Tantrum-in-Chief busily grubbing money from everywhere to build a wall that falls over in a stiff wind.Not to mention a wall that a $100 hardware store saw quickly cuts through.Smugglers Are Using $100 Hardware Store Power Tools to Saw Holes in Trump’s $10 Billion WallWhere was he getting that money from? Was it the money that was supposed to expand the stockpile of ventilators? Was it just the money for someone to test and maintain the medical equipment? There is no good explanation for why 170 ventilators shipped from the national stockpile to California arrived in non-working order.The Trump administration sent California 170 ventilators to help in coronavirus battle — but none of the equipment workedAs an IT worker, given what I heard on a news report about flashing the firmware fixing them, I’m guessing they have a decade problem in the firmware. Not a big issue. People are supposed to test and maintain medical devices at regular intervals. Some have to be re-certified periodically. The firmware was reportedly on the vendor site and just had to be flashed. I didn’t hear the entire report so I would not take that as gospel. Embedded devices having a decade problem is nothing new, nor is it of any real concern. These things are supposed to undergo periodic maintenance.I had a client with a decade problem in a critical factory system. It was no big deal. They had a regularly schedule assignment. Around November of a year ending in nine, a programmer was dispatched to make a one-line change to a FORTRAN program, recompile it, and install. There was a written procedure on how to do this. It took longer to drive to the factory than it did to make this program “good for another decade.”Statistically, when you pallet up 170 of something, put them in the back of a truck, and bounce them down our well-maintained Interstate and highways, you expect a few to arrive in non-working condition. If flashing the firmware fixes it, then the problem wasn’t shipping — it was neglect. Was the neglect due to all of the maintenance money being routed to a worthless wall? I don’t know, but sure sounds plausible.Yes, it was the federal government’s responsibility to maintain the national stockpile, no matter what the son-in-law claims on television. That’s the national stockpile. After SARS we knew there would be another SARS-like event. The national stockpile didn’t have enough to back up one metropolis, let alone multiples.COVID-19 is a biological entity that can evolve faster than humans. It isn’t evil. We are cattle in a feed lot to it. Something to be consumed whenever it wishes. It doesn’t care that it will kill the host. By that time some of its offspring will have moved on to other hosts. Keep in mind that a high fever was how COVID-19 was being identified prior to the current tests. By the time you have the fever, you have already infected others if you haven’t been practicing social distancing.In one respect it is much like humans. When an oil well runs dry, we drill another hole in the ground. Sometimes we frack to get every last drop of oil or natural gas out of it. When a coal vein plays out or becomes too difficult to mine, we find a new vein and dig a new hole. All the time we are causing climate change, giving the planet a fever. Yet another truth the Imbecile-in-Chief declares “fake news.”I’m old enough to remember when Illinois actually had winters. Farmers had to put four-foot bury hydrants where they actually had to have water year round; they could use the cheaper three-foot bury hydrants where it was more convenience than necessity. I remember the old farmers asking each other: “How many hydrants you still got working?” during the winter. If you had some froze up, the next question was “Is that a three-foot or four-foot bury hydrant?”This is how we measured the frost line. We didn’t care how deep it was until the hydrants started to freeze. When the first three-footer froze, that is when we went into action, putting bails of straw around all the rest. In later years we got electrical heat tape. If all of your hydrants froze, that was a hard time because the livestock still had to be watered.Pandemics are going to become more deadly and occur more often. Assuming we get out of shelter in place, before the next cold and flu season, we are going to be right back into it. COVID-19 is going to be a seasonal thing, just like the rest of the viruses we simply call “the flu.” This one was allowed to evolve too far.There are only a few things to keep such things in check.Have long hard wintersGet rid of squalorBan international air travelHard winters kill such things off. Even if the winter cannot kill the virus, it can kill off the sickly weaker mammals that host it, allowing it to evolve. Hard winters also kill off many tics, mosquitoes, and other disease-carrying insects. Climate change has stopped Illinois and much of the Midwest from having traditional long hard winters.Don’t confuse a few feet of snow at once and a few days with below-zero temperatures as a long hard winter. You measure it via the hydrants. It isn’t a long hard winter until the three-foot bury hydrants freeze. At that point you know winter killed most of the outdoor things that could kill you.Banning all international air travel isn’t just some freakish Armadillo-hat-wearing concept. For decades, we’ve had the travel and tourist industry telling people they absolutely must “spend a week in” insert-tourist-trap-here. The culture of only getting two weeks of vacation per year has helped re-enforce this concept.We con people into spending money to be crammed into an aluminum can along with screaming, squalling Petri dishes of the CDC’s 100 most deadly diseases (some people call them children) and breath recycled air for hours. Parents are the worst. They planned for this trip, saved for it, booked months in advance to get the best deal. So it doesn’t matter what the kids have — they are getting on the plane. Look back to the measles outbreak a few years ago. People got off the plane not just having been exposed but visibly showing measles.If people want to travel to foreign countries, they need to take a boat and they need to go for a month or longer. We need to restrict speeds so that it takes 14 days for that passenger ship to cross the ocean. By then we should know if anyone on board is carrying anything and if it is safe to let them off. Our current travel industry leaves them on the plane long enough to infect everyone and then dumps them out into the general population. This has to stop. People are getting across the ocean far too fast and these deadly diseases spread pretty fast.Before you write that off, consider just how rare a regional pandemic is these days. Ebola was somewhat contained. SARS much less so. COVID-19 seems to have gotten an all-access pass. It’s global. This is because we allow and encourage too much international travel.As far as your comments about Trump Derangement Syndrome, I do hope they find a cure for a derangement syndrome that has people backing the worst President in the history of the country. At any rate, after this election when he is voted out of office, he will be arrested, he will be tried, and he will go to prison. I wrote about it in a blog post back on February 27, 2020.Can The President Get Secret Service Protection In Prison? – Interesting Authors BlogActually, I pointed out how he committed the same crime as Blagojevich, and we put Blagojevich in prison for it. Then came the OP-ED and the completely inexcusable editorial (surprisingly not you) which tried to justify it. Yeah, the Daily Journal is just a tabloid. Nobody with ethics could try to spin that comment.I was basically born a Republican. I didn’t fully embrace it until as a kid I watched the Nixon impeachment. That’s when it hit me. Despite all of the drinking, whoring, and cocaine snorting of the Good Time Charlie days, these people had ethics and integrity. All of the fantastic things Nixon did for the country didn’t matter when it came to the impeachment. He tried to cover it up and lied about it. That was a crime too far. Both Clinton and Trump did the same thing and got away with it. The GOP told Nixon they were going to impeach him and he resigned. Big donors could pull the strings to get Trump off the impeachment hook, but they cannot get him out of a criminal trial once he is out of office. No, it won’t be double jeopardy.Consider for a moment all of the things Nixon did for America as President.Created the EPA – this is why people are going to prison over Flint, Michigan’s drinking water and why we have drinking water standardsEnded the draftNational Cancer Act on the 23rd of December 1971 – most of us know someone who is still alive because of thisCut the deficit by 70%First president to fight for Guaranteed Health Care – he lost, but he fought for it and his plan was much like ObamacareGuaranteed income – he lost but he fought for it knowing it was probably political suicide.Lowering the voting age with the 26th Amendment – few remember that there was a time when a teenager could drive a car, have their own place, and be sent to war, yet not have the right to vote. That time ended with the 26th Amendment.First example of affirmative action in U.S. history with the Philadelphia PlanTitle IX gender equalityDesegregationWhat we currently have in Washington representing the GOP are quite simply an embarrassment to the human species.

LETTER OF REQUESTCrPC SECTION 48 empowers the police officers to persue the offenders into any place in India beyond their jurisdiction.SECTION 48. PURSUIT OF OFFENDERS INTO OTHER JURISDICTIONS.A police officer may, for the purpose of arresting without warrant any person whom he is authorised to arrest, pursue such person into any place in India.______________________CPC SECTION 78 AND ORDER 26, RULE 19 TO 22SECTION 78 OF THE CPC DEALS WITH COMMISSIONS ISSUED BY FOREIGN COURTS and reads as under:"Section 78: Commissions issued by foreign courts. Subject to such conditions and limitations as may be prescribed, the provisions as to the execution and return of commissions for the examination of witnesses shall apply to commissions issued by or at the instance of:(a) ​Courts situate in any part of India to which the provisions of this Code do not extend; or(b) ​Courts established or continued by the authority of the Central Government outside India; or(c) ​Courts of any State or country outside India".Section 78 of the CPC must be read with Order 26 Rules 19 to 22. The object of Section 78(c) of CPC is to facilitate collection of evidence pursuant to a request received from a foreign court.Order 26 Rule 16 provides for the powers of the commissioner including power to call for documents. Rule 16 refers to express powers of a commissioner to(a) examine the parties themselves and any witness whom they or any of them may produce, and any other person whom he thinks proper to call upon to give evidence in the matter referred to him; and(b) call for and examine documents and other things relevant to the subject of inquiry. Rules 16 states:"16. POWERS OF COMMISSIONERS.-Any Commissioner appointed under this Order may, unless otherwise directed by the order of appointment:(a) examine the parties themselves and any witness whom they or any of them may produce, and any other person whom the Commissioner thinks proper to call upon to give evidence in the matter referred to him;(b) call for and examine documents and other things relevant to the subject of inquiry;(c) at any reasonable time enter upon or into any land or building mentioned in the order."Order 26, Rules 19 to 22 of the CPC specifically deals with Letters of Request issued by a foreign court for taking evidence of witnesses residing in India. Rule 19 specifically deals with cases in which a High Court may issue commission to examine witness."19. CASES IN WHICH HIGH COURT MAY ISSUE COMMISSION TO EXAMINE WITNESS-(1) If a High Court is satisfied:(a) ​that a foreign court situated in a foreign country wishes to obtain the evidence of a witness in any proceedings before it,(b) ​that the proceeding is of a civil nature, and(c) ​that the witness is residing within the limits of the High Court's appellate jurisdiction, it may, subject to the provisions of Rule 20, issue a commission for the examination of such witness.(2) ​Evidence may be given of the matters specified in clauses (a), (b) and (e) of sub- rule (1)-(a) ​by a certificate signed by the consular officer of the foreign country of the highest rank in India and transmitted to the High Court through the Central Government, or(b) ​by a letter of request issued by the foreign court and transmitted to the High Court through the Central Government, or(c) ​by a letter of request issued by the foreign court and produced before the High Court by a party to the proceedings."Power to appoint a commissioner is established under Order 26, Rule 19 of CPC notwithstanding that the treaty is not incorporated into the municipal laws. A reading of Order 26, Rule 19 would reveal that the courts in India, upon receiving a request from a foreign court for assistance have to satisfy itself three conditions:(a)​the proceeding is in the foreign court;(b)​it is a "civil" (as opposed to a criminal proceeding) proceeding and;(c)​the witness whose deposition is sought lives within its jurisdiction.Rules 20, 21 and 22 of Order 26 of the Code of Civil Procedure read as follows:"Rule 20: Application for issue of commission- The High Court may issue a commission under Rule 19:(a) ​upon application by a party to the proceedings before the foreign court, or(b) ​upon an application by a law officer of the State Government acting under instructions from the State Government".Rule 21: To whom commission may be issued. A commission under Rule 19 may be issued to any court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the witness resides, of where the witness resides within the local limits of (the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the High Court) to any person whom the court thinks fit to execute the commission.Rule 22: Issue, execution and return of Commissions and transmission of evidence of foreign court.The provisions of Rules 6, 15, sub-rule (1) of Rules 16-A, 17, 18 and 18-B of this Order in so far as they are applicable shall apply to the issue, execution and return of such commissions, and when any such commission has been duly executed it shall be returned, together with the evidence taken under it, to the High Court, which shall forward it to the Central Government, along with the letter of request for transmission to the foreign court."The court within whose jurisdiction the witness resides will be the appropriate court to execute the letter of request. Simply because a witness has not been specified in the letter of request issued by a foreign court would not make the request unenforceable especially in the light of the language of Order 26 Rule 19 read along with Rules 17, 20, 21 and 22.______________________A Letter Rogatory or Letter of Request is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies sought by Letters Rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.Service of Process:Courts may serve documents only to individuals within the courts’ jurisdiction One exception to this rule is, States that invoke universal jurisdiction, granting their courts ubiquitous domain. Therefore a person seeking to take an action against a person in another country will need to seek assistance from the judicial authorities in the other country. This is of course assuming the court in his own country has jurisdiction to hear the case matter. As a hypothetical example, Alice in the United States wishes to sue Roberto in Argentina. Alice issues her summons in a U.S. court, and must then petition a court in Argentina by means of a letter Rogatory to serve the process on Roberto.The use of letters Rogatory for purposes of service of process to initiate court action is now largely confined to the Americas. As between countries in Europe, Asia, and North America, service of process is effected without resort to lettersRogatory, under the provisions of the Hague Service Convention.Taking of Evidence:Another reason why a court may require assistance from a foreign court is to obtain evidence from a witness. This evidence may be to answer questions relevant to the determination of an issue of fact, or for disclosure of documents.Courts only have power to subpoena witnesses from within their own country. So for example Alice in the U.S. could not summon Jean from France to the U.S. courthouse. Instead the U.S. court would issue a letter rogatory to a French court, who would then examine Jean in France, and send a deposition back to the requesting court.ConventionsIn the past, letters Rogatory could not usually be transmitted directly between the applicable courts, and had to be transmitted via consulate or diplomatic channels, which could make the whole process very slow. There have been various international conventions in regard to service of process and taking of evidence. One of the earliest conventions to simplify the procedure of Letters Rogatory was the 1905 Civil Pocedure Convention, signed at The Hague, drafted only in French, it was only ratified by 22 countries. Later conventions, created after the institution of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, drafted in both English and French commanded more support. The Hague Service Convention, ratified in 1965, enabled designated authorities in each of the signatory states to transmit documents for service to each other, bypassing the diplomatic route. This convention has been ratified by 60 states including the United Kingdom and the United States, neither of whom had ratified the 1905 convention. The Hague Evidence Convention, ratified in 1970, formalised procedures for taking of evidence. This convention has been ratified by 43 statesFor countries not signed up to any convention, the letter rogatory is still used. So for example, a plaintiff in the Netherlands which is signed up to the Hague Service Convention would still need to issue a letter rogatory to Brazil, as the latter has not signed the Convention.________________________LETTER OF REQUESTSection 48 empowers the police officers to persue the offenders into any place in India beyond their jurisdiction.SECTION 48. PURSUIT OF OFFENDERS INTO OTHER JURISDICTIONS.A police officer may, for the purpose of arresting without warrant any person whom he is authorised to arrest, pursue such person into any place in India.LETTERS OF REQUEST; SERVICE AND TAKING OF EVIDENCE ABROAD IN COMMERCIAL MATTERS - INDIAN PERSPECTIVELetters of Request is a formal communication in writing sent by the Court in which action is pending to a foreign court or Judge requesting the testimony of a witness residing within the jurisdiction of that foreign court may be formally taken thereon under its direction and transmitted to the issuing court making such request for use in a pending legal contest or action.A.​ LETTER OF REQUEST – MEANING OFLetters of Request / Rogatory is a formal communication in writing sent by the Court in which action is pending to a foreign court or Judge requesting the testimony of a witness residing within the jurisdiction of that foreign court may be formally taken thereon under its direction and transmitted to the issuing court making such request for use in a pending legal contest or action. This request entirely depends upon the comity of courts towards each other and usages of the court of another nation.India became a party to the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, and also the Hague Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters in 2007.B.​ THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE SERVICE ABROAD OF JUDICIAL AND EXTRAJUDICIAL DOCUMENTS IN CIVIL OR COMMERCIAL MATTERS 1965.The Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters 1965 [“Service Convention”] entered into force in India in 2007. India has made a reservation to the Convention objecting to service of process by mail, or directly on defendants through judicial officers in India (i.e. advocate or private process server) without the involvement of the designated Central Authority. Further, the documents for service must be written in English.Under the Service Convention, a Central Authority is designated and all requests for service can be sent to it. The request for service of documents should be in English language or accompanied by an English translation. The service of judicial documents through diplomatic or consular channels is limited to the nationals of the State in which the documents originate.The request should be modeled along the lines of the model annexed to the Hague Service Convention. The authority or judicial officer competent under the law of the state of origin must send the document to the Central Authority of the relevant state. The Central Authority would then either execute the service itself or arrange for it to be executed by other means provided in Article 5 of the Service Convention.THE CENTRAL AUTHORITY FOR SERVICE IS THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE, DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS situated at 4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi, 110001, India.C.​ THE HAGUE CONVENTION OF 18 MARCH 1970 ON THE TAKING OF EVIDENCE ABROAD IN CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL MATTERS [THE HAGUE CONVENTION].(A) ​OBJECTIVE OF THE HAGUE CONVENTIONThe Hague Convention was concluded to facilitate the transmission and execution of Letters of Request and to further the accommodation of the different methods used for this purpose in order to improve mutual judicial co-operation in civil or commercial matters.Signatories to the Hague Convention have agreed to discovery of documents and testimony. Under Hague Convention discovery of documents can be sought by means of a Letter of Request, issued by the court where the action is pending and transmitted to the “Central Authority” of the jurisdiction where the discovery is located. The Central Authority responsible for transmitting the request to the appropriate judicial body for a response (Articles 1 and 2). A Letter of Request can also be issued for seeking deposition testimony to be taken before a diplomatic or consular officer (Article 3).The contracting States to the Hague Convention are required to establish a Central Authority responsible for accepting and processing Letters of Request from other contracting States.(B) ​CENTRAL AUTHORITY DESIGNATED UNDER THE HAGUE CONVENTIONIndia, pursuant to Article 2 of the Hague Convention, has designated a Central Authority to receive Letters of Request from a judicial authority of another Contracting State and to transmit them to the authority competent to execute them. The Central Authority designated by India for this purpose is:• The Ministry of Law and Justice and the High Courts in all states and union territories in India (under Articles 2, 16 and 17).• The district court in whose territory the evidence is to be taken (under Article 18).• The Central Authority and the relevant court (under Article 8).THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE, Department of Legal Affairs is situated at 4th floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi, India.(C)​ RESERVATION / DECLARATION MADE BY INDIA TO THE HAGUE CONVENTIONIndia has spelt out its reservations ("declaration") under the Hague Convention in the following terms:• All requests under the Convention shall be in the English language, or accompanied with an English translation.• Subject to prior authorization of the Central Authority and the concerned court, members of the judicial personnel of the requesting Contracting Party may be present at the execution of a letter of request.• Evidence by diplomatic officers or consular agents of Indian nationals or nationals of a third State under Article 16 of the Convention can be taken with the prior permission of the Central Authority.• In accordance with Article 18, a diplomatic or consular officer or a commissioner authorized under Article 15, 16 and 17 may apply for appropriate assistance to obtain the evidence by compulsion to the District Court within whose territory the evidence is to be taken.The Republic of India will not execute Letters of Request issued in pursuance of Article 23 of the Convention for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents, which requires a person to produce any documents other than particular documents specified in the Letter of Request, which are likely to be in his possession, custody or power.(D) ​LETTER OF REQUESTThe Letter of request to take depositions should be modeled on the Hague Model Letter of Request and submitted to the Indian Central Authority designated for the Hague Convention. Article 3 of the HAGUE CONVENTION PROVIDES THAT A LETTER OF REQUEST SHALL SPECIFY:(a) ​the authority requesting its execution and the authority requested to execute it, if known to the requesting authority;(b) ​the names and addresses of the parties to the proceedings and their representatives, if any;(c) ​the nature of the proceedings for which the evidence is required, giving all necessary information in regard thereto;(d) ​the evidence to be obtained or other judicial act to be performed.WHERE APPROPRIATE, THE LETTER SHALL SPECIFY, INTER ALIA:(e) ​the names and addresses of the persons to be examined;(f) ​the questions to be put to the persons to be examined or a statement of the subject matter about which they are to be examined;(g) ​the documents or other property; real or personal, to be inspected;(h) ​any requirement that the evidence is to be given on oath or affirmation, and any special form to be used;(i) ​any special method or procedure to be followed under Article 9.A letter may also mention any information necessary for the application of Article 11. No legalization or other like formality may be required.A Letter of Request coming from a judicial authority of a Contracting State will be received in another Contracting State by a designated Central Authority who shall then transmit the Letter to the authority competent to execute them. The Letter shall be sent to the Central Authority of the State of execution without being transmitted through any other authority of that State (Article 2).Whom to address? The Letter of Request must be addressed to the appropriate High Court in India within whose jurisdiction the witness resides. There are at present 21 High Courts for 28 States in India. The Request must clearly mention the address of the witness.A Letter of Request cannot be used to obtain evidence which is not intended for use in judicial proceedings, commenced or contemplated. A Letter of Request may be issued to obtain evidence or to perform some other judicial act, in civil or commercial matters, by a judicial authority of a Contracting State in accordance with the provisions of the law of that State to the competent authority of another Contracting State (Article 1). The expression "other judicial act" does not cover the service of judicial documents or the issuance of any process by which judgments or orders are executed or enforced, or orders for provisional or protective measures.(E) ​THE PROCEDURE FOR TAKING EVIDENCE IN INDIAUpon issuance of a Letter of Request by a foreign court which is normally addressed to the High Court in the appellate jurisdiction in which the witness is situated, the concerned High Court would appoint a commissioner and issue a direction to him as it may deem fit and appropriate. The fee of the commissioner is normally borne by the party seeking to take evidence. The Commissioner would fix a date for recording of the evidence. The evidence is recorded in the manner desired by the foreign court. After the recording of the evidence the Commissioner would have to file the evidence with the High Court. The High Court would either forward it to the central government which would transmit it to the foreign court issuing the request or may allow the entire record of the Commissioner’s report be transmitted by the applicant directly to the foreign court.(F) ​PRE-TRIAL DISCOVERY OF DOCUMENTSArticle 23 of the Hague Convention specifically provides that a contracting State could make a declaration “that it will not execute Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in Common Law countries.”Contracting States which have executed a declaration under Article 23 are:Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela(G) ​EXPRESSION "EVIDENCE" INCLUDES PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTSThe expression "Evidence" is confined to one or other mode of evidence and it extends to both oral testimony as well as production of documents through the named witnesses. The Delhi High Court in the Upaid Systems Ltd. case held that there was nothing in Order 26 Rule 19 of the CPC to limit the language to only "oral evidence" and eschew documentary evidence which may come within the expression "evidence"; nor was there any warrant to interpret the provision in the light of subsequently ratified convention, with declaration, by India. Indian law even permits through Order 11 Rules 12 to 14 CPC, courts to direct disclosure/discovery of documents which may later be determined to be inadmissible or irrelevant.(H)​ APPROACH OF INDIAN COURTSThe power to legislate in respect of treaties lies with the Parliament under Entries 10 and 14 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Even though the Indian Parliament has not enacted a special law to give effect to the Hague Convention, it would not take away the courts power to act on a Letter of Request in terms of the provisions of Order 26, Rules 19 to 22 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC). Further, Article 27 of the Hague Convention provides that the Convention would not affect any existing law a contracting state may have on the subject.An international treaty entered into by India cannot become law of the land and it cannot be implemented unless Indian Parliament passes a law. The Indian Supreme Court in KESORAM INDUSTRIES CASE relied on the decision in COROCRAFT LTD. V. PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS INC., wherein Lord Denning observed that it is the duty of the courts to construe the legislation so as to be in conformity with international law and not in conflict with it. It is one thing to say that legislation may be interpreted in conformity with international principles but is entirely a different thing to give effect to a treaty provision in the absence of municipal laws.The Indian government has in its response to a questionnaire on the Hague Convention adopted the stand that the implementation of the convention into municipal laws of India is through section 78 and Order 26, Rule 19 to 22 of the CPC.SECTION 78 OF THE CPC DEALS WITH COMMISSIONS ISSUED BY FOREIGN COURTS and reads as under:"Section 78: Commissions issued by foreign courts. Subject to such conditions and limitations as may be prescribed, the provisions as to the execution and return of commissions for the examination of witnesses shall apply to commissions issued by or at the instance of:(a) ​Courts situate in any part of India to which the provisions of this Code do not extend; or(b) ​Courts established or continued by the authority of the Central Government outside India; or(c) ​Courts of any State or country outside India".Section 78 of the CPC must be read with Order 26 Rules 19 to 22. The object of Section 78(c) of CPC is to facilitate collection of evidence pursuant to a request received from a foreign court.Order 26 Rule 16 provides for the powers of the commissioner including power to call for documents. Rule 16 refers to express powers of a commissioner to(a) examine the parties themselves and any witness whom they or any of them may produce, and any other person whom he thinks proper to call upon to give evidence in the matter referred to him; and(b) call for and examine documents and other things relevant to the subject of inquiry. Rules 16 states:"16. POWERS OF COMMISSIONERS.-Any Commissioner appointed under this Order may, unless otherwise directed by the order of appointment:(a) examine the parties themselves and any witness whom they or any of them may produce, and any other person whom the Commissioner thinks proper to call upon to give evidence in the matter referred to him;(b) call for and examine documents and other things relevant to the subject of inquiry;(c) at any reasonable time enter upon or into any land or building mentioned in the order."Order 26, Rules 19 to 22 of the CPC specifically deals with Letters of Request issued by a foreign court for taking evidence of witnesses residing in India. Rule 19 specifically deals with cases in which a High Court may issue commission to examine witness."19. CASES IN WHICH HIGH COURT MAY ISSUE COMMISSION TO EXAMINE WITNESS-(1) If a High Court is satisfied:(a) ​that a foreign court situated in a foreign country wishes to obtain the evidence of a witness in any proceedings before it,(b) ​that the proceeding is of a civil nature, and(c) ​that the witness is residing within the limits of the High Court's appellate jurisdiction, it may, subject to the provisions of Rule 20, issue a commission for the examination of such witness.(2) ​Evidence may be given of the matters specified in clauses (a), (b) and (e) of sub- rule (1)-(a) ​by a certificate signed by the consular officer of the foreign country of the highest rank in India and transmitted to the High Court through the Central Government, or(b) ​by a letter of request issued by the foreign court and transmitted to the High Court through the Central Government, or(c) ​by a letter of request issued by the foreign court and produced before the High Court by a party to the proceedings."Power to appoint a commissioner is established under Order 26, Rule 19 of CPC notwithstanding that the treaty is not incorporated into the municipal laws. A reading of Order 26, Rule 19 would reveal that the courts in India, upon receiving a request from a foreign court for assistance have to satisfy itself three conditions:(a)​the proceeding is in the foreign court;(b)​it is a "civil" (as opposed to a criminal proceeding) proceeding and;(c)​the witness whose deposition is sought lives within its jurisdiction.Rules 20, 21 and 22 of Order 26 of the Code of Civil Procedure read as follows:"Rule 20: Application for issue of commission- The High Court may issue a commission under Rule 19:(a) ​upon application by a party to the proceedings before the foreign court, or(b) ​upon an application by a law officer of the State Government acting under instructions from the State Government".Rule 21: To whom commission may be issued. A commission under Rule 19 may be issued to any court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the witness resides, of where the witness resides within the local limits of (the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the High Court) to any person whom the court thinks fit to execute the commission.Rule 22: Issue, execution and return of Commissions and transmission of evidence of foreign court.The provisions of Rules 6, 15, sub-rule (1) of Rules 16-A, 17, 18 and 18-B of this Order in so far as they are applicable shall apply to the issue, execution and return of such commissions, and when any such commission has been duly executed it shall be returned, together with the evidence taken under it, to the High Court, which shall forward it to the Central Government, along with the letter of request for transmission to the foreign court."The court within whose jurisdiction the witness resides will be the appropriate court to execute the letter of request. Simply because a witness has not been specified in the letter of request issued by a foreign court would not make the request unenforceable especially in the light of the language of Order 26 Rule 19 read along with Rules 17, 20, 21 and 22.CONCLUSIONOrder 26 Rule 19 and 20 do not confer any power upon Indian courts to go into a proprietary of the letter of request or the questions of relevance or admissibility of the evidence. The questions of relevancy and admissibility are to be considered by the court issuing the letter of request. The very fact that the letter of request had been issued implies that it has been issued after taking into account the question of relevance and admissibility as well by the foreign court. Indian court would not sit in appeal over the orders of foreign court on this aspect of the matter.