Purandar Bhowmik And Others v. State Of West Bengal And ANR

24.11.2023 Serial no. 215 [G.S.D] CRR 4298 of 2023 In the matter of : Purandar Bhowmik & Ors.

... ... Petitioners Mr. Soumajit Chatterjee Mr. Arhan Sengupta Ms. Atreyee Halder Mr. P. P. Sinha ... for the petitioners Mr. Arijit Ganguly ... for the State The petitioner is directed to serve upon Mr. Arijit Ganguly, Ld. Advocate, who ordinarily appears on behalf of the State. His appearance may be regularised by the concerned authority.

The present case was initiated in the year 2013 being Lalgarh P.S. Case No. 04 of 2013 dated 20.01.2013 under sections 498A/34 of the IPC which is pending before the ld. JM, Jhargram.

Ld. advocate for the petitioner submits that they have been facing the agony of criminal trial for more than ten years as there is hardly any progress in the trial of the case.

According to the petitioners, out of seven witnesses, so cited by the prosecution, only two witnesses have been examined.

Ld. advocate submits that until and unless the proceedings are expedited, unnecessarily the petitioners would be facing the pressure and agony of criminal trial. The ld. JM is directed that, henceforth, from the next date, the ld. trial court would fix at least one date in every 15 days so that the trial of the case can be taken to its logical conclusion within a reasonable period of time. In case, any witness is absent, then, the ld. JM would inform the Inspector-in-charge of Lalgarh P.S., who would take all efforts for ensuring the appearance of the witnesses. In spite of all efforts been taken by the inspector in charge or, if any witness cannot be traced out, or the persons cannot be ensured before the court, in that case, a report be submitted by the inspector in charge of the concerned p.s. The ld. trial court, if it finds that on three occasions, a witness is absent without any cause, in that case, the ld. trial court would close the evidence and proceed with the trial of the case.

With the aforesaid observations, CRR 4298 of 2023 is disposed of.

Pending application, if any, is also disposed of. Parties to act on a server copy of this order duly collected from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties, subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.

(Tirthankar Ghosh, J.)