Law: Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)

Section: 561

Law: Pakistan Penal Code, 1860

Section: 409,420,468

Criminal Trial----   ---Accused entitled to speedy justice-Inordinate delay-Condemned.   An accused person is entitled to speedy justice, and if it is denied to him, the High Court will come to his rescue. Where the accused had waited in vain for ten long years to get justice but he had been told to wait for some time more, it was held that that amounted to torture, though there might not have been any such intention.   Malik Fazal Karim v. The State P L D 1957 Lah. 837 Muhammad Tufail v. The State Cr. Misc. No. 352 of 1957 and Muhammad Hussain v. The State P L D 1959 Lah. 322 ref.     Date of hearing :15th July 1959.       JUDGMENT   These are 34 Separate, but identical petitions, submitted by one Wali Muhammad, Store Keeper (under Suspension) Electricity Department Peshawar Cantonment Sub-Division, under section 561-A Cr. P. C. for quashing the criminal proceedings pending against him for prosecution on charges under sections 409, 420 and 468, P. P. C. in the Court of Mr. Abdur Razzaq Abbasi Special Judge Peshawar.   The progress of these cases discloses a lamentable state of affairs, which perhaps, is unprecedented in the history of criminal administration. Briefly, the petitioner was suspended on the 1st March 1949, while the F. I. R. was lodged on the 15th November 1949. After the investigation was completed, the cases were put up in the Court of Assistant Commissioner Charsadda (Magistrate Ist Class) on the 18th September 1954. Adjournment after adjournment was granted right up till 10th July 1955, on one ground or another, which prima facie were not quite cogent. Thereafter the cases were transferred to the Court of Mr. Aslam Abdullah, Special Judge, on the same day (14th July 1955). No progress was made in the commencement of the proceedings, until the Special Judge was transferred on the 16th November 1955. The cases then remained in cold storage, until they were brought out on the 16th February 1959 and put up in the Court of Mr. Abdur Razzaq Abbasi, Special Judge Peshawar. Except for one case No. 263/2 of 1951, which is ripe for judgment, the rest of the cases remain untouched and no proceedings have…