Manaranjan Das@Monda v. State Of West Bengal

C.R.R. 144 of 2022 Court No.

Item 25 Ssi In the matter of:- Manaranjan Das @ Mona 11.02.

(via video conference) Mr. Husen Mustafi ...for the petitioner Mr. Md. Kutubuddin ...for the State Leave is granted to correct the cause title by Monday i.e. 14.02.2022.

This is an application seeking an expeditious disposal of a proceeding in which a charge-sheet was submitted under Section 20 of the NDPS Act.

Let a copy of this application be served upon Mr. Md. Kutubuddin, learned Advocate, who is present in court today and who ordinarily appears on behalf of the State. His engagement may be regularized by the competent authority of the case in due course. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is an accused in this case. He is in custody since 28.06.2020 the date on which the FIR was lodged. Charge-sheet was submitted in September 2020. The prosecution intends to examine 12 witnesses in this case. On 26.11.2021, charge was framed against the petitioner. The next date was fixed for evidence on 29.03.2022. Yet, till date only a single

witness could be examined. Long dates are being fixed. The matter has remained pending for no fault of the present petitioner.

Learned counsel for the State submits that the State would not come in the way if a direction is passed to expedite the proceeding.

I have heard the submissions of the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the petitioner and the State and have perused the revision petition. It appears that some delay has been occasioned in concluding the proceeding in this case, especially considering the fact that the petitioner is in custody since 28.06.2020.

In view of the above and in the interest of justice, I request the learned trial Court to conclude the proceeding as expeditiously as possible without granting any unnecessary adjournment to any of the parties, preferably within a period of one year from the next date of hearing.

With these observations, the revisional application is disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copies of this order may be delivered to the learned Advocates for the parties, if applied for, upon compliance of all formalities. (Jay Sengupta, J.)