Joti Praksh Debnath @Papu v. State Of West Bengal

CRR 577 of 2022 Court No.

Item 28 tbsr 25.02.

In the matter of:- Joti Prakash Debnath @ Pappu Mr. Angshuman Chakraborty Mr. Shasanka Sekhar Saha .....for the petitioner Mr. Anwar Hossain Ms. Manisha Sharma .....for the State This is an application seeking an expeditious disposal of a proceeding in which a charge-sheet was submitted under Sections 21 (c) and 29 of the NDPS Act. Let a copy of this application be served upon Mr. Anwar Hossain and Ms. Manisha Sharma, learned counsels, who are present in court today and who ordinarily appear on behalf of the State. Their engagement may be regularised in due course by the competent authority of the State.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is an accused in this case. He is in custody since 18.02.2020, the date on which the FIR was lodged. Charge sheet was submitted in 2020 and a supplementary charge sheet was submitted in 2021. The prosecution intends to examine eight witnesses in this case. Although the charges were framed on 23.12.2021, till date not a single witness could be examined. 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 trial.

I have heard 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 this case, especially considering the fact that the petitioner is in custody since 18.02.2020.

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 next date of hearing.

With these observations, the revisional application is disposed of.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order may be supplied to the parties expeditiously, if applied for. (Jay Sengupta, J.)