NEW DELHI: Holding that constitutional courts should not remain mute spectators when there is inordinate delay in concluding an investigation and a citizen has to run from pillar to post to raise his grievance, the Supreme Court took exception to the Gujarat police not wrapping up a probe which has been going on for over 20 years and directed it to complete the task within six weeks.A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and A G Masih noted that the complaint was filed before the judicial magistrate first class way back in 2007 and the complainant’s plea to direct police to file a chargesheet in the case was rejected by the Gujarat HC.“This court is of the view that it is incumbent upon constitutional courts to not remain mute spectators when such prolonged investigations are brought to its notice. Therefore, in such peculiar circumstances, the high court ought to have exercised its extraordinary jurisdiction to intervene in the present matter,” it said.“In the present factual matrix, nearly two decades have passed since the initiation of the complaint by the original complainant. However, it is a matter of serious concern that despite the lapse of such an inordinate period of time, the investigation is yet to reach any meaningful conclusion. From a bare perusal of the record, it is evident that the original complainant had run from pillar to post for filing of a chargesheet in connection with his complaint, but to no avail,” the bench added. Probe in the case was delayed as material seized during the course of investigation got misplaced during transit after FSL examination and it was never received by the judicial magistrate. The HC had ordered re-investigation in the case in 2017 but the original case papers remained untraceable and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the officer concerned and appropriate action was taken.“We are of the view that incidents such as this, wherein case records are lost during an active investigation, have to be taken with utmost seriousness. Moreover, such incidents strike at the very core of the criminal justice system, rendering bonafide complaints inactionable. Therefore, in the interest of justice, we direct the state of Gujarat and the Bhiloda police station to conclude investigation within a period of six weeks from today and file an appropriate report with the judicial magistrate containing all investigative material and, if so, the lack thereof,” the bench said.
