Court No. - 41 Case :- CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. - 16582 of 2009 Petitioner :- Smt. Harmesh Kataria Respondent :- State Of U.P. & Others Petitioner Counsel :- A.S. Rai Respondent Counsel :- Govt. Advocate Hon'ble Imtiyaz Murtaza,J.
Hon’ble Shri Kant Tripathi,J.
It would appear from the record that the arrest of the petitioners 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 petitioners 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.
The writ petition is disposed of with the aforesaid directions.
Order Date :- 6.1.2010
MTA