Court No. - 41 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 6489 of 2009 Petitioner :- Kitab Singh Respondent :- The State Of U.P. And Others Petitioner Counsel :- Jai Narain Respondent Counsel :- Govt. Advocate Hon'ble Imtiyaz Murtaza,J.
Hon’ble Naheed Ara Moonis,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned A.G.A. for the State.
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.
No useful purpose would be served in keeping this petition pending any
longer. Accordingly, we dispose of this writ petition with the following
directions:
(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 petitioners 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 miscellaneous 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 :- 27.1.2010
o.k.