- (1.) BARKAT Ali Zaidi, J. Abdul Hamind is an accused in S. T. No. 368 of 2007 under section 307 I. P. C. , Police Station Kotwali Nagar, District Bulandshahar, pending in the Court of Addl. Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court No. 18, Bulandshahar. He has come to this Court seeking transfer of this Trial to another Court in the District.
(2.) THE ground on which the transfer is sought, is that the Trial Judge refused him to defer the cross-examination of P. W. 2 Ram Singh and recorded the statement of P. W. 3 S. I. Som Pal Singh rejecting adjournment applications despite that his Counsel was ill on both the dates and that on 29. 9. 2007 when statement of P. W. 3 was recorded and that the advocates were also on the strike, and also rejected the application for recalling the witnesses. I have heard Sri Sunil Kumar, advocate for the applicant and Mohd. Israil Siddiqui, Addl. Government Advocate for the State. It is no doubt true, that the Counsel for the applicant has a very unprofessional approach, which fact appears from the circumstances and has also been mentioned by the Trial Judge in his orders dated 29. 9. 2007 and 6. 10. 2007. The fact that the learned Counsel came to the Court, remained there the whole day on 21. 9. 2007 and ultimately came to cross-examine the witness P. W. 2 in the afternoon at 3. 30 P. M. indicates that the application for adjournment on the ground of illness was fallacious.
(3.) ON the next date, advocates were on strike, therefore, the lawyers did not appear and that his Counsel was also ill when the statement of P. W. 3 was recorded, technically speaking, Court work could not be suspended because of lawyers strike and the Trial Court was, therefore, justified in recording the statement of P. W. 3. However, in order that the client may not suffer, because of the strange attitude of his lawyer, it seems appropriate that the learned Trial Judge should be asked to re-summon the witnesses (P. W. 2 and P. W. 3) so that they may be cross-examined. This seems necessary because the case depends solely on the testimony of police witnesses.;