Santosh Singh vs Sooraj Singh Chauhan

Dharam Veer, J.—By means of this application moved u/s 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter to be referred as Cr.P.C.) the applicant has prayed for direction to the Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate-1st, Dehradun to expedite the trial of Complaint Case No. 239 of 2010, Santhosh Singh v. Sooraj Singh Chauhan u/s 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

Heard learned Counsel for the applicant and perused the entire material in file.

Learned Counsel for the applicant drawn the attention of this Court towards Section 143(3) of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 which reads as under:

143(3) Every trial under this section shall be conducted as expeditiously as possible and an endeavour shall be made to conclude the trial within six months from the date of filing of the complaint.

In view of the above-said quoted section, learned Counsel for the applicant argued that the trial court ought to have decided the above-said case by now, however the above-said case is pending in the trial court for a long time due to which the applicant is facing hardship.

After considering the entire facts and circumstances of the case and on perusal of Section 143(3) of the Act as well as on consideration of the argument advanced by the counsel for the applicant, I am of the view that the court below should be directed to decide the case expeditiously.

For the reasons as aforesaid, the application C482 is disposed of with the direction to the Addl. Chief Judicial Magistrate-1st, Dehradun to decide the proceedings in Complaint Case No. 239 of 2010, Santosh Singh v. Sooraj Singh Chauhan, pending before him expeditiously preferably within a period of six months.