‘Is this a joke?’: SC pulls up J&K prosecution for delay as murder accused remains jailed for 7 years

New Delhi, Feb 03: The Supreme Court on Tuesday strongly criticised the prosecution in a Jammu and Kashmir murder case after noting that only seven witnesses had been examined over the past seven years, while the accused continued to remain in jail as an undertrial.

Granting bail to the accused, Anoop Singh, the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan termed the delay a “mockery” of the constitutional right to a speedy trial under Article 21 and sought an explanation from the Home Secretary of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“This is a mockery of Article 21. You have made a mockery of the concept of speedy trial,” Justice Pardiwala remarked, expressing shock at the pace of the proceedings in a case dating back to October 4, 2018.

The court directed the J&K Home Secretary to file a response within four weeks and to appear before the bench via video conferencing on the next date of hearing. It also asked him to place on record details of all pending criminal trials in the Union Territory where accused persons have been in custody for more than five years.

The observations came after the court examined a report submitted by the trial court, which described the progress of the case as “extremely disappointing”. The report revealed that despite 82 hearings having taken place, not a single witness had been examined in recent years, even though the prosecution still proposes to examine 17 more witnesses.

“The trial judge appears exasperated,” Justice Pardiwala noted, adding that the prosecuting agency owed an explanation for the “gross and inordinate delay” in concluding the trial.

During the hearing, counsel for the Union Territory attributed part of the delay to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent legal proceedings initiated by the victim’s wife, including a protest petition and a direction by the high court for a fresh investigation and a supplementary chargesheet in 2022.

However, the bench rejected the explanation, observing that trials across the country had not come to a complete halt during the pandemic. The court further noted that there had been no significant progress in the case even after 2022.

Taking serious note of the prolonged incarceration of the accused, the Supreme Court ordered that Anoop Singh be released on bail, subject to conditions to be fixed by the trial court.