https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184473 The constitutional right to a speedy investigation and trial under Article 21 extends to the entire criminal process, including investigation, and prejudice must be assessed through a balancing test considering the nature of the offence, responsibility for delay, systemic factors, and surrounding circumstances. Here, the investigation remained stalled for an exceptionally long period despite an earlier direction to complete it within a fixed time, and the delay from December 1990 to February 2007 was wholly unexplained. Because the delay was not attributable to the accused and no exceptional justification was shown, continuation of the criminal proceedings amounted to a violation of the speedy trial guarantee and the proceedings were liable to be quashed. en-us Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:28:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184473 The constitutional right to a speedy investigation and trial under Article 21 extends to the entire criminal process, including investigation, and prejudice must be assessed through a balancing test considering the nature of the offence, responsibility for delay, systemic factors, and surrounding circumstances. Here, the investigation remained stalled for an exceptionally long period despite an earlier direction to complete it within a fixed time, and the delay from December 1990 to February 2007 was wholly unexplained. Because the delay was not attributable to the accused and no exceptional justification was shown, continuation of the criminal proceedings amounted to a violation of the speedy trial guarantee and the proceedings were liable to be quashed. Case-Laws Indian Laws Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=184473