Subhajit Nath@Babu v. State Of West Bengal

CRR 1586 of 2022 In the matter of:- Subhajit Nath @ Babu Court No.

Item 27 tbsr 11.05.

Mr. Somnath Banerjee Mr. Pronojit Roy ......for the petitioner Mr. Bidyut Kr. Roy Ms. Rita Dutta .....for the State This is an application seeking an expeditious disposal of a proceeding in which a charge sheet was submitted under Section 21 (c) of the NDPS Act. Let a copy of this application be served Mr. Bidyut Kr. Roy and Ms. Rita Dutta, 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 19.01.2019, the date on which an FIR was lodged. Charge sheet was submitted in July, 2019. In all the prosecution intends to examine 8 witnesses in this case.

Out of 8 witnesses, the 7 are police personnel. Charge was framed on 24.02.2020. Yet, till date the proceeding could not be concluded. This is despite the fact that on 21.02.2020 a direction was passed by this Court in CRR No. 254 of 2020 for expediting the proceeding. The proceeding 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 the submissions of the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the petitioner and the State and have perused the revision petition. It is unfortunate that despite a previous direction passed by this Court directing an expeditious disposal of the proceeding, the trial could not be concluded till date. It appears that there is an inordinate delay caused in this case, especially considering the fact that the petitioner is in custody since 19.01.2019.

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 and by fixing dates in terms of Section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, preferably within a period of eight months from the 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.) .