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TMI Blog2011 (10) TMI 599X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he accused persons who succeeded greatly in procrastinating a criminal proceedings against them, later succeeded in getting the criminal proceedings quashed solely on the ground of procrastination of court proceedings in the criminal case concerned. State of Bihar has now challenged the judgment of a learned single Judge of the Patna High Court as per which the aforesaid criminal proceedings have been quashed. An FIR was registered in 1991 for the offence under Section 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966, (for short the RPUP Act). An inquiry was conducted under Section 8 of the said Act and on completion of the inquiry a complaint was filed in the court of a judicial magistrate of First Class on 13.1.1992. The magis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... criminal case remained without any progress during the said period it portrays a sad picture of the administration of criminal justice. But the uncontroverted fact situation in this case reflects that the respondents accused have no justification in seeking advantage of the said delay because their contribution towards such delay was, by no means, insubstantial. We may now give an outlay of the said factual position which the respondents, in their counter affidavit, did not dispute. The complaint was filed on 13.1.1992 and process was issued against the four accused arrayed therein. First respondent thereafter moved the Sessions Court in revision by challenging the order by which the magistrate took cognizance of the offence. Despite t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ould warrant his conviction. This is the legislative edict of Section 245 of the Code. The only other exception to the said precept is that it is open to the magistrate to discharge the accused at any previous stage of the case if for reasons to be recorded by such magistrate, he considers the charge to be groundless. The magistrate had no reason to discharge the accused at that stage as he felt that there is evidence to frame the charge he could not but dismiss the plea for a discharge. The High Court did not consider the case from the angle provided in Section 245 of the Code. As extracted above, the High Court was persuaded to discharge the accused only on the ground that the case was pending for the last seven years. The ideal sit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the present case, the offence charged against the respondents is Section 3 of the RPUP Act. That offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and in the absence of special and adequate reasons to be mentioned in the judgment such imprisonment shall not be less than one year. If it is found that the accused had committed the second or a subsequent offence such minimum term of imprisonment shall be two years. We point out this aspect to show that the offence now pitted against the respondents is serious in nature. Learned counsel for the respondents invited our attention to the decision of this Court in Rajiv Gupta vs. State of H.P. {2000 (1) SCC 68}. In paragraph 7 of the said judgment learned Judge ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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