E-Paper
2007 drugs case: High court dismisses Punjab’s appeal against acquittal after 1,600 days
The Punjab and Haryana high court bench of justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Vikas Suri observed that the state has proceeded in a leisured manner as if it is placed at a better pedestal than the ordinary litigant and, therefore, can seek some preferential right or treatment for condoning the delay.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has dismissed an appeal against the acquittal of a person in a drugs case, filed by Punjab after 1,600 days. The statutory requirement for the same as per Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is two months of the acquittal order passed by a trial court.
The HC bench of justice GS Sandhawalia and justice Vikas Suri observed that the state has proceeded in a leisured manner as if it is placed at a better pedestal than the ordinary litigant and, therefore, can seek some preferential right or treatment for condoning the delay. “However, the precedents as such do not support that any different formula is to be adopted in the cases of the state,” the bench asserted.
The judgment of acquittal was passed by special court, Bathinda on April 18, 2015 in an FIR registered on May 2 of 2007 in a drugs seizure case against one Natha Singh.
The government’s explanation before the HC was that an application for summoning of three witnesses was dismissed by the trial court which was challenged before HC. However, in the meantime, the case was decided by the trial court and the person was acquitted. The appeal on the issue of summoning of three witnesses was withdrawn from HC in September 2017 since the same had become infructuous. The file was then put up before the law officer in which in December 2017 it was opined that it was a fit case to file an appeal. In February 2018, the file from advocate general office to Bathinda district attorney was sent. The matter then went to Bathinda senior superintendent of police for grant of sanction, which was finally obtained in November 2018. The sanction letter was then sent to advocate general office in November 2018 and in July 2019, the matter was put up for vetting and appeal filed in February 2020. It was also claimed that action had been taken against the delinquent official who kept the file pending with him for seven months between July 2019 and February 2020.
The court, however, observed that the appeal has been filed after a delay of 1,671 days. The court disagreed with the reasons given for justifying delay in filing.
“..the reading of the dates would go on to show that the delay has occurred not at one point of time, but on several occasions,” the bench observed adding that if the state was interested to prosecute the respondent, there was no need to file the criminal revision before high court, which was eventually dismissed as withdrawn.
In spite of obtaining an opinion in December 2017, the sanction could not be obtained till November 2018 and after receiving the same, the case was put up for vetting only in July 2019. “Thus, now to fall back that there was delay on the part of one delinquent official for 7 months when the appeal was filed in February, 2020 would not make out sufficient cause to condone the inordinate delay,” the bench recorded adding that court was of the opinion that there is no reason to condone the inordinate delay and dismissed the plea.
