- (1.) PROGRESS report for pending 10 cases, out of 58 cases, has been submitted as 48 cases have already been decided by the trial court. Case no.RC48(A)/96Pat. has proceeded satisfactorily. For case no.RC68(A)/96Pat., it has been stated that the record is in the process of transfer from court no.IV to court no.I. According to learned counsel for C.B.I, the process of transfer started from 17 th December, 2013 and thereafter, there was winter break and now the process is likely to be completed and in that case, 24 witnesses are to be examined. In case no.RC47(A)/96Pat., 4 witness appeared but their evidence could not be recorded due to objection raised by the defence counsel. In this case, 328 prosecution witnesses have already been examined. Yet 368 prosecution witnesses are to be examined and C.B.I is now finding out the exact number of witness now to be examined, obviously out of 368. That process be completed expeditiously. Case no.RC34(A)/96Pat. is at defence witness stage. Case no.RC33(A)/96Pat. is at argument stage. In case no. RC38(A)/96 Pat., one witness could not appear due to his serious illness and 225 witnesses have been examined and 76 prosecution witnesses are yet to be examined.
(2.) IN case no.RC45(A)/96Pat., the witness was I.O. and he could not appear, as, according to the C.B.I, he was to appear in Dhanbad court in C.B.I case. In this case, 191 witness have already been examined and 31 prosecution witnesses are yet to be examined. In case no.RC64(A)/96Pat., I.O's crossexamination was going on since 12th March, 2012. From the fact of case no.RC64(A)/96Pat., it appears that courts are yet to start day to day recording of evidence and this is a grave case. In spite of the fact that progress of the cases are being monitored by the High Court continuously, yet for crossexamination of one I.O, almost one year is about to pass. As per the instruction of learned counsel for C.B.I, the court is giving about 3 or 4 dates in a month for crossexamination of the same witness. This clearly indicates that the courts have not examined witnesses continuously day to day basis. Now looking to the facts of the cases, it appear that all cases are of the year 1996. We are again passing the order and directing the courts to prepare a complete timeframe chart for each case, whenever the case is taken up on the next date from today and in each case, the dates may be fixed for taking continuous evidence of the witnesses of a case, meaning thereby if there are 20 witnesses and the court finds that some witnesses may take much time in examination, then it may fix the number of witnesses by selecting one long witness with 23 short witnesses for a particular date and if possible as per the case, fix the next date for the next lot of witnesses in the same ordersheet so that summons to the witnesses may be issued by one order for different dates so that the witnesses may be examined and for subsequent witnesses, no longer date may be given in this way.
(3.) IN a case when examinationinchief or crossexamination is likely to take much time, as far as possible that witness should not be discharged and the case should not be posted to another date unless there exists any reason other than the next date so as to complete the witness's evidence by taking the evidence continuously without any break. These are the guidelines. However, the courts are free to act according to the need of individual case so that such glaring deficiency should not be in any of the cases, like examination of one witness for one year as has been done in case no.RC64(A)/96Pat. Copy of this order be circulated to all courts conducting the trial of these cases. Further progress report be submitted on 20th March, 2013. Put up this case on 20.3.2013. Copy of this order be given to learned Amicus Curiae as well as counsel for C.B.I.;