Officers Instead Of Treating Appeal As Judicial Proceedings Made It Virtually A Fair Tale: P&H High Court While Dealing With Petition U/s. 482 CrPC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently while dealing with a Petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, noticed the significant delay in adjudicating an application seeking cancellation of the suspension of sentence of the accused/respondent in a cheque bounce case, pending since September 2021, and came heavily on the Judicial Officer for handling the case in a leisurely manner.
The Single Judge Bench of Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu in its order observed "The officers who remained associated with the matter, took it leisurely and instead of treating the appeal as judicial proceedings, made it virtually a fairy tale". The High Court also asked the Director, of Chandigarh Judicial Academy for sensitizing the officer(s) in such like case(s) to save the precious Court time; rather than granting adjournments in routine.
The Petitioner had approached the High Court seeking direction on the Court of ADJ to dispose off the pending application for cancelling the suspension of sentence of the accused/respondent in a time-bound manner and that the respondent was directed to deposit 20% of the fine/compensation awarded by trial Court within 60 days of that date, i.e. February 18, 2021, but despite availing more than 25 adjournments, no compliance has been made by the respondent regarding a deposit of 20% compensation, till date.
Noting which the High Court had on the earlier date directed that "Let all the zimni orders, right from 18.02.2021 up till 05.05.2023, be brought to the notice of learned District & Sessions Judge, Bathinda, and report be submitted to this Court for further consideration." Further, it was submitted to the High Court that it appears that the application for cancelling the suspension of sentence order on February 18, 2021, remained pending for more than nine occasions for filing a reply by the appellant-accused and ultimately the reply was filed by the appellant-accused on October 18, 2022.
Additionally, the Court noted that after that matter remained pending for consideration on the said application and thereafter the matter was posted for arguments on the main appeal without disposing of the application mentioned above.
Accordingly, the Court disposed of the Petition with the following directions:
"(i) Learned Appellate Court shall ensure that appellant is present on each and every date of hearing. (ii) In view of the controversy involved, the appeal be decided expeditiously, in accordance with law. (iii) Progress report be sent to the Registry by 30.09.2023."
Cause Title: Dheeraj Bansal v. M/s Mehar Chand Jewellers and another [CRM-M-33850-2023]
