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Judgment
Jay Sengupta, J
This is an application praying for expeditious disposal of the trial in Special T.R. Case No. 21 of 2023 presently pending before the learned Special (POCSO) Court at Howrah arising out of Liluah P.S. Case No. 34 dated 28.01.2023 under Sections 4 and 6 of the POCSO Act.
Affidavit service filed on behalf of the petitioner is taken on record.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits as follows. The petitioner is the de facto complainant in this case.
Although the FIR was lodged on 28.01.2023, charge sheet has been submitted on 20.02.2023 and even charges were framed on 19.04.2023, till date the trial could not be concluded. Only two witnesses have been examined out of a total of 18. The trial has remained pending for no fault of the present petitioner. In fact, long dates are being fixed. On the last occasion the date was fixed after 9 months and the next date is fixed after nearly one year.
Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State submits that there is delay in conducting the proceeding before the trial Court.
No prejudice will be caused to anyone if a direction is passed to expedite the trial.
It appears that although the Investigating Agency concluded the investigation in time, it was before the trial Court that the delay was occasioned. There is no reason as to why the dates in a POCSO Act trial would be fixed after nine months or a year.
In the view of the above and in the interest of justice, the learned trial court is directed to conclude the proceeding in accordance with law and as expeditiously as possible by keeping in mind the statutory stipulations as contained in the POCSO Act regarding expeditious disposal of the proceeding. For such purpose, the trial Court shall prepone the next date to any date in the month of December, 2025.
With these observations and directions, the revisional application is disposed of.
Urgent Photostat certified copy of this judgment be supplied to the parties, if applied for, as early as possible.