2001 (2) TMI 590

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....pite the procedural trammels and vocational constraints we have reached a stage when no effort shall be spared to speed up trials in the criminal courts. It causes anguish to us that in spite of the exhortations made by this Court and a few High Courts, time and again, some of the trial courts exhibit stark insensitivity to the need for swift action, even in cases where the accused are languishing in prisons for long years as under-trials only on account of the slackness, if not inertia, in accelerating the process during trial stage. 2. We shall narrate, in a brief manner, as to what happened thus far in the present case though this seems to be one of the rare cases in which an under-trial prisoner has been facing a record time for....

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.... the trial court could not proceed fast, for which the respondent has also contributed substantially. From the records available with us we have perceived that the respondent moved the High Court of Gujarat for bail on the ground that the court is not closing the trial despite the direction for speeding up the steps. However, the High Court dismissed the application for bail as per a detailed order passed on 29-10-1999. That order was challenged by the respondent before this Court by seeking special leave to appeal. 6. The said special leave petition was disposed of on 31-3-2000 with the following order : "As the Special Judge who is trying the case has reported to us that he reasonably expects to close the trial within six month....

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....passed on 24-7-2000 (presumably after hearing both sides at length) the trial judge adopted a very unwholesome procedure by stopping the trial for a lengthy period, just to enable the defence to take up that order before the High Court. Even though the prosecution brought witnesses to be examined on 8-8-2000, the trial judge hesitated to examine them, and extended the stay granted by himself and did not choose to take the evidence of those witnesses on the said date. However, the defence failed to challenge the said order and hence the trial proceedings were resuscitated on 16-8-2000. 10. On that day the defence raised another objection regarding admissibility of another document. The trial judge heard elaborate arguments thereon an....

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....nterlocutory orders. 13. It is an archaic practice that during the evidence collecting stage, whenever any objection is raised regarding admissibility of any material in evidence the court does not proceed further without passing order on such objection. But the fallout of the above practice is this: Suppose the trial court, in a case, upholds a particular objection and excludes the material from being admitted in evidence and then proceeds with the trial and disposes of the case finally. If the appellate or revisional court, when the same question is re-canvassed, could take a different view on the admissibility of that material in such cases the appellate court would be deprived of the benefit of that evidence, because that was no....

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....e, if followed, will have two advantages. First is that the time in the trial court, during evidence taking stage, would not be wasted on account of raising such objections and the court can continue to examine the witnesses. The witnesses need not wait for long hours, if not days. Second is that the superior court, when the same objection is re-canvassed and reconsidered in appeal or revision against the final judgment of the trial court, can determine the correctness of the view taken by the trial court regarding that objection, without bothering to remit the case to the trial court again for fresh disposal. We may also point out that this measure would not cause any prejudice to the parties to the litigation and would not add to their mi....