Court No. - 32 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 15336 of 2008 Petitioner :- Durga Lal Respondent :- State Of U.P. & Others Petitioner Counsel :- A.P. Tewari,S.S. Tripathi Respondent Counsel :- Govt. Advocate Hon'ble R.K. Agrawal,J.
Hon’ble S.C. Agarwal,J.
The arrest of the petitioner was stayed by an interim order passed in this writ petition.
The investigation had not been stayed. It is not known whether the investigation has
been completed yet or not.
We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned A.G.A.
In the case of Mahendra Lal Das v State of Bihar 2002 SCC (Crl) 110 it has been
held by the Supreme Court that while interference by Courts at investigation stage is
not called for, the investigating agency cannot be given latitude of protracting the
conclusion of the investigation without any limit of time.Having considered the lapse
of time since lodging of the FIR, we dispose of this writ petition with the following
orders:
(1) The investigation will be completed within three months of the date on which a
certified copy of this order is presented before the Investigating Officer or any police
officer of the district to whom the investigating officer is directly subordinate;
(2) The petitioner will not be arrested during pendency and for the purpose of
investigation, provided a certified copy of this order is presented before the police
officer as directed above within one month from today;
(3) If certified copy is not presented within the time aforesaid the stay of arrest will
not operate;
(4) If at the conclusion of the investigation, a charge sheet is submitted instead of
final report, it will be open to the Judicial Magistrate, if he decides to take
cognizance, to summon the accused by summons or warrants in accordance with
Section 204 Cr.P.C. after copies have been prepared for compliance with Section
207/208 Cr.P.C.
(5) If for any unavoidable reason, the investigation cannot be completed within the
aforesaid time of three months, it will be open to the investigating officer to apply in
this writ petition by means of a misc. application for enlargement of said time of three
months by giving details of the investigation conducted during the aforesaid period of
three months and also giving reasons why the investigation could not be completed
within the time specified above;
(6) If the charge sheet is decided to be submitted to the Court of Magistrate, in
column no. 3 of the prescribed form of charge sheet, it will be mentioned that the
accused have not been arrested on account of stay order granted by this Court;
(7) The accused will cooperate with the investigation and in case of non-cooperation
or otherwise if the Investigating Officer is of the opinion that for any other valid
reason the arrest of accused is necessary during or for the purpose of investigation it
will be open to the Investigating Officer to apply in this writ petition by means of a
Misc. application giving details of non-cooperation as also details of what kind of
cooperation is expected by the accused for completing investigation or why the arrest
is otherwise necessary so that interim stay of arrest granted hereby may be vacated.
Order Date :- 28.1.2010
AM/-
