Rahul Jaiswal vs The State Of West Bengal
2022 Latest Caselaw 5152 Cal

Form J(1)        IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA
                    Criminal Revisional Jurisdiction
                              Appellate Side


Present :
The Hon'ble Justice Bibek Chaudhuri


                       CRR 2319 of 2022
                          Rahul Jaiswal
                                Vs.
                     The State of West Bengal


      Mr. Soumojit Das Mahapatra
      Mr. A. A. Alamgir
      Ms. Riya Das
      Ms. Rabia Khatun
                        ...for the petitioner

      Md. Kutubuddin
                ...for the State




Item No.190ML


Heard & Judgment on:          08.08.2022


Bibek Chaudhuri, J.

The accused/petitioner has prayed for expeditious

disposal of NDPS Case No.8 of 2020 arising out of Serampore

Police Station Case No.52 of 2020 dated 11 th February, 2020

under Sections 20(b)(ii)(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances Act presently pending before the

learned Special Judge under NDPS Act at Hooghly.

On perusal of the instant revision and considering the

nature of the relief claimed this Court is of the view that the

instant revision can be disposed of here and now with the

assistance of the learned advocate for the State.

Therefore, Md. Kutubuddin, learned advocate is requested to

assist this Court on behalf of the State respondent.

The appointment of Md. Kutubuddin be regularized by the

learned Legal Remembrancer, Government of West Bengal.

It is submitted by the learned advocate for the petitioner that

the accused was arrested in connection with the above mentioned

case by the police on 11 February, 2020 with an allegation that he

was found in possession of narcotic substances above the commercial

quantity. Police submitted charge sheet against the accused and the

trial Court framed charge against the accused on 24 th September,

2021. Subsequently, date for recording evidence was fixed on 13 th

January, 2022, thereafter on 12th May, 2022 and the next date of

hearing of the case is fixed on 19th November, 2022. On previous

dates prosecution failed to produce any witness for examination. The

accused is languishing in jail without any trial.

It is important to note that in a case instituted on police report

it is the duty of the prosecution to produce witnesses. However, it is

the consistent experience of the Court that the learned Public

Prosecutor in the Special Courts all over the State do not take any

positive step for production of the witnesses. There are seventeen

witnesses in the charge sheet. Not a single witness was produced by

the prosecution on the previous dates of trial.

Under such circumstances, the instant revision is disposed of

directing the trial Judge to instruct the Special Prosecutor to produce

at least three witnesses on 19 th November, 2022. Thereafter, the

learned trial Judge shall fix a schedule of examination of witnesses in

terms of the provision under Section 309 of the Code of Criminal

Procedure and take serious endeavour to examine all the witnesses

within six months from the date of communication of the order.

With the above direction the instant revision is disposed of.

(Bibek Chaudhuri, J.)