Thomas, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The accused persons who succeeded greatly in procrastinating a criminal proceeding against them, later succeeded in getting the criminal proceedings quashed solely on the ground of procrastination of Court proceedings in the criminal case concerned. State of Bihar has now challenged the judgment of a learned single Judge of the Patna High Court as per which the aforesaid criminal proceedings have been quashed.
(3.) An FIR was registered in 1991 for the offence under Section 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966, (for short 'the RPUP Act'). An inquiry was conducted under Section 8 of the said Act and on completion of the inquiry a complaint was filed in the Court of a Judicial Magistrate of First Class on 13-1-1992. The Magistrate took cognizance of the offence and issued proceedings against four persons arrayed in the complaint including the respondents in this appeal. Thereafter, the case passed through many vicissitudes. On 5-1-1998, the respondent moved an application in the trial Court praying that they may be discharged. The Magistrate rejected the application and the said order of the Magistrate was challenged before the High Court. On 24-7-1998, learned single Judge of the High Court quashed the criminal proceedings as per the impugned order. The reasoning of the learned single Judge for adopting such a step is the following : "Admittedly, the criminal case was registered against the petitioners on the basis of report on 22-2-1991 and cognizance was taken on 13-1-1992 on the basis of the charge-sheet submitted by the Railway Police Force personnel. It is also admitted fact that till date charge has not been framed although about 7 years have passed and the case is pending for the last seven years. There is nothing on the record to show that the delay in proceeding with the case has been caused due to laches on the part of the petitioners. In such circumstances, in my opinion, for the ends of justice, the instant proceeding against the petitioners should not continue any further." ;