Debabrata Mondal @ Debabrata Mandal and Another Vs State of West Bengal and Anr. — Calcutta HC (2024) — LawSathi Research

Debabrata Mondal @ Debabrata Mandal and Another Vs State of West Bengal and Anr. — Calcutta HC (2024) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Directions issued to the trial court to hold at least one trial date every three months and conclude the trial within a reasonable period, granting no unnecessary adjournments; Public Prosecutor to produce materials, exhibits and documents on fixed dates; advocates to participate despite any bar resolution and all stakeholders to cooperate; pending application, if any, also disposed of.

Issue for consideration

Whether directions should be issued to secure timely conclusion of the trial of the petitioners in Jadavpur P.S. Case No. 348 of 2020, the proceedings having remained pending for more than three and a half years.

Court's answer

The Court directed the trial court to fix at least one date in every three months so that the trial of the case is taken to its logical conclusion within a reasonable period of time.

Ratio / Principle

No unnecessary adjournment is to be granted to any of the parties.

Key takeaways

The Public Prosecutor conducting the case is to produce the materials, exhibits and documents on the dates fixed for examination of the concerned witnesses.ratio¶12
The representing advocates are to participate in the trial notwithstanding any resolution of the bar and are not to stall the proceedings in any manner whatsoever.ratio¶12
All stakeholders are to cooperate with the trial court to conclude the trial at the earliest.

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

CRR 1519 of 2024, High Court, Calcutta, decided 01.05.2024 (Tirthankar Ghosh, J.). Petitioners implicated in Jadavpur P.S. Case No. 348 of 2020 sought expedition of trial proceedings pending for more than three and a half years, with only part of the examination of prosecution witness no.1 concluded; charge was framed on 6 October 2023 and the prosecution intended to examine five witnesses. The Court directed the trial court to fix at least one date in every three months so as to take the trial to its logical conclusion within a reasonable period, ordered that no unnecessary adjournment be granted to any party, required the Public Prosecutor to produce materials, exhibits and documents on the dates fixed for witness examination, and directed the representing advocates to participate in the trial in spite of any resolution of the bar without stalling proceedings, with all stakeholders cooperating to conclude the trial at the earliest. With these observations, CRR 1519 of 2024 and any pending application were disposed of.

01.05.2024 Serial no. 8 [G.S.D]

CRR 1519 of 2024

In the matter of : Debabrata Mondal @ Debabrata Mandal & anr.

… … Petitioners

Mr. P. Khan Mr. S. Ash Ms. R. P. Devi Ms. Sohini Mukherjee Mr. Subhajit Saha … for the petitioners Mr. Debasish Roy Mr. Anand Keshari Ms. Rituparna Sha … for the State

The petitioners have been implicated in connection with Jadavpur P.S. Case No. 348 of 2020.

Ld. Advocate appearing for the petitioners submits that the petitioners have been knocking the doors of the court for more than three and half years and, till date, only a part of the examination of the prosecution witness no.1 has been concluded.

It has been informed that after framing of charge on 6^th of October, 2023, case has been progressing but, in a slow manner.

It has also been pointed out that the prosecution intends to examine five witnesses.

2

Having considered the period of time for which the proceedings are pending, I direct the ld. Trial court to fix at least one date in every three months so that the trial of the case can be taken to its logical conclusion within a reasonable period of time. No unnecessary adjournment be granted to any of the parties.

Ld. Public Prosecutor conducting the case will produce the materials, exhibits and documents on the date so fixed for examination of the witnesses concerned. The representing advocates will participate in the trial of the case in spite of any resolution of the bar and will not stall the proceedings in any manner whatsoever. All stakeholders will cooperate with the trial court to conclude the trial at the earliest.

With the aforesaid observations, CRR 1519 of 2024 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, 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.)