Nuruddin Ahmad and N. N. Keswani, for the respondent.
judgment and order dated May 23, 1969 of the Assam and Nagaland High Court at Gauhati in Cr.
82 0 Mookherjee, Avtar Singh, G. Das, S. P. Nayar and R. N. Sachthey, for the appellant.
These three appeals have, therefore, been filed by the Union of India by certificate granted by the High Court.
He did this on three grounds 1 that the officer who investigated the case was number companypetent to do so 2 that the offences that were being tried were numbercognizable and the Special Judge companyld number have taken companynizance of them without sanction under section 196A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and 3 that in view of the enormous length of time between 2 2 63, the date on which the case was registered and 1 4 68, upto which date some witness had been examined, the last witness having been examined on 15 1 67, it entailed undue harassment to the accused persons and the proceedings have to be quashed to prevent further harassment, abuse of the process of the companyrt and vexation to the accused persons.
Appeals by certificate from the.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION Criminal Appeals Nos.
One charge which was ,common to all the three of them was that between June 1962 and January 1963 all of them agreed to companymit or cause to be companymitted offences under section 5 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and of cheating punishable under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, and these offences having been companymitted in pursuance of a companyspiracy were punishable under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code read with section 5 2 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 420 I.P.C. Mr. Gupta, the businessman was charged under section 420 I.P.C. as well as section 511 read with section 420 I.P.C. The two Army officers were also charged with offences under section 420 read with section 5 1 d of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A learned Single Judge allowed these petitions on 23 5 1969 and quashed the charges and the proceedings before the learned Special Judge.
After about 18 out of the 52 witnesses cited by the prosecution had been examined the three respondents filed petitions under section 561A read with section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure before the High Court of Assam Nagaland on 28 3 68, 1 4 68 and 10 4 68 respectively for quashing the charges.
36, 39 and 46 of 1968.
Harbans Singh, for the respondents.
Rev. Nos.
The officer was an Inspector of the Delhi Special Police Establishment.
The case was filed before the Special Judge on 28 6 1963 and the charge was framed on 13 2 65.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by ALAGIRISWAMI, J. Two of the appellants, Major Lala and Lt.
All of them were put up for trial before the Special Judge appointed under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1952.
M. Tarkunade, A. L. Arora and D. D. Sharma, for the respondent.
Khanna are Army officers and the appellant in the 3rd appeal, Gupta, is a businessman of Gauhati.
