Holding

The trial court may note objections to evidence and decide them at the final judgment, except where the objection relates to stamp‑duty deficiency, and no further extension of time is granted.

Summary

Bipin S. Panchal was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for a massive seizure of methaqualone tablets. The trial court failed to complete the trial within the six‑month period ordered by this Court, leading the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to seek a further six‑month extension. While hearing the application, the Supreme Court examined the procedural practice of stopping trial proceedings each time an objection to the admissibility of evidence is raised. It held that, except for objections concerning stamp‑duty deficiency, the trial court may note the objection, tentatively mark the material as an exhibit, and decide the objection at the final judgment, thereby avoiding unnecessary delays. The Court declined to grant any additional time, directing the trial court to expedite the trial, and noted that the accused’s bail application could be considered on its merits. The petition for extension was therefore dismissed.

Issues considered

Whether a trial court must pass an immediate order on every objection to the admissibility of evidence during the evidence‑taking stage.
Whether the trial court may defer adjudication of such objections to the final judgment, except in cases of stamp‑duty deficiency.
Whether the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is entitled to a further six‑month extension for completing the trial.

Legislation cited

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973s. 268, s. 309
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act

Subjects

trial delayevidence admissibilityobjection procedureCriminal Procedure CodeNDPS Actbailundertrial detentionexpedited trial

Judgment

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BIPIN SHANTILALPANCHAL A
v.
+ STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANR.

FEBRUf.RY 22, 2001

[K.T. THOMAS, R.P. SETIIl AND B.N. AGRAWAL, JJ.] B

Criminal Trial :

Trial-Completion of-Undue delay in-Expeditious disposal of cases-
Procedure to be followed-Held: It is an an::haic practice <>f not proceeding
further during the evidence-taking stage without passing order on the objection
c
reganling admissibility of evidence-The objected document or oral evidence
should be marked as an exhibit or recorded-At the final stage if the objection
is sustainable such evidence be excluded from consideration-However, if the
-y objection relates to deficiency of stamp duty of a document, such objection has
to be aecided before proceeding further-Trial court to follow the above D
procedure whenever an objection is raised reganling admissibility of any
material or item of oral evidence-Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Ss. 268
and 309.

The appellant-accused was arrested for offences under the Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. The trial court could not pro- E
ceed with the trial expeditiously due to its interlocutory orders being
challenged in the High Court. The appellant's bail application was re-
jected by the High Court even though bail was sought on the ground of
undue delay in the completion of the trial. The appellant's Special Leave
Petition was disposed of by this Court with the direction that the trial F
' court should close the trial within six months. As the trial could not be
completed within six months the respondent had liled the present applies·
tion seeking further six month's time to complete the trial.

-- Disposing of the application, the Court

HELD : 1. It is an archaic practice that during the evidence-collect-
G

ing stage, whenever any objection is raised regarding admissibility of any
material in evidence the court does not proceed further without passing
__.... order on such objection. (33-F]

· 2. Whenever an objection is raised during evidence-taking stage H
29
30 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] 2 S.C.R.

A regarding the admissibility of any material or item of oral evidence the
trial court can make a note of such objection and mark the objected
document tentatively as an exhibit in the case (or record the objected part
of the oral evidence) subject to such objections to be decided at the last
stage in the final judgment. If the court finds at the final stage that the
objection so realised is sustainable, the judge or magistrate can keep such
B
evidence excluded from consideration. There is no illegality in adopting
such a course. However, if the objection relates to deficiency of stamp
duty of a document the court has to decide the objection before proceed-
ing further. For all other objections the procedure suggested above could
be followed. (34-C-D]
c
3. The above said procedure, if followed, will have two advantages.
First is that the time in the trial court, during evidence-taking stage,
would not be wasted on account of raising such objections and the court
can continue to examine the witnesses. lbe witnesses need not wait for
long hours, if not days. Second is that the superior court, when the same '
D objection is re-canvassed and reconsidered in appeal or revision against
the final judgment of the trial court, can determine the correctness of the
view taken by the trial court regarding the objection, without bothering
to remit the case to the trial again for fresh disposal. This measure would
not cause any prejudice to the parties to the litigation and would not add
E to their misery or expenses. Trial court shall follow this procedure when-
ever an objection is raised regarding the admissibility of any material or
any item of oral evidence. [34-E-F; G]

CRIMINAL APPELLATE ruRISDICTION : Criminal Miscellaneous
Petition No. 862 of 2001.
F IN

Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 223 of 2000.

From the Judgment and Order dated 29.10.1999 in Criminal Misc.
Application No. 2898 of 1999 of the High Court of Gujarat at Aharnadabad.
G
Mukul Rohtagi, Additional Solicitor General, if.A. Raichura, Saroj H.
Raichura, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Ms. Sunita Hazarika, Ashok Srivastava, B.K.
Prasad, P. Parmeswaran for the appearing parties.

H The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
B.S. PANCHAL v. STATE [THOMAS, J.] 31
THOMAS, J. This is yet another opportunity to infonn the trial courts A
that despite the procedural lrammels and vocational conslraints we have reached
+ a stage when no effort shall be spared to speed up trials in the Criminal courts.
It causes anguish to us that in spite of the exhortations made by this Court and
a few High Courts, time and again, some of the lrial courts exhibit stark
insensitivity to the need for swift action, even in cases where the accused are
B
languishing in prisons for long years as under-trials only on account of the
slackness, if not inertia, in accelerating the process during trial stage.
-\,
We shall narrate, in a brief manner, as to what happened thus far in the
present case though this seems to be one of the rare cases in which an under-
trial prisoner has been facing a record time for reaching culmination of the c
trial proceedings.

The genesis of the proceedings is interception of a consignment at the
Air Warehouse, Mumbai, which was meant for export to Nairobi. The con-
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signment, when opened, was found containing a very huge quantity of Mandrex
tablets (Methaqualone). Respondent (Dr. Bipin S. Panchal) was arrested on D
8.11.1993 in connection with the aforesaid seizure of narcotic or psycholropic
substance. It led to the uueartbing of a further huge quantity of Maudrex
tablets which, added with the earlier interception, is quantified at about 2000
Kgs. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Ahmedabad filed a complaint
against certain persons including respondent Bipin S Panchal, for various
E
offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psycholropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The said case is being tried before the court of Additional City Sessions Judge,
Ahmedahad.

Respondent was detained in prison as he was not bailed out during the
trial proceedings despite repeated motions made by him. Once in 1994, when F
respondent approached for bail, this Court directed the trial court to expedite
the trial. Though the evidence taking started on 4.9.96, the case is still
lingering on as the trial persisted thereafter for years. This is in spite of the
pennission accorded to the trial court for holding proceedings inside the jail
where some of the accused are being interned, as per section 268 of the Code
G
of Criminal Procedure.

For so many reasons the trial court could not proceed fast, for which the
........- respondent has also contributed substantially. From the records available with
us we have perceived that the respondent moved the High Court of Gujarat for
bail on the grouud that the court is not closing the trial despite the direction H
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32 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] 2 S.C.R.

A for sveeding up the steps. However, the High Court dismissed the application
for bail as per a detailed order passed on 29 .10.1999. That order was challenged
by the respondent before this Court by seeking special leave to appeal. +
The said special leave petition was disposed of on 31.3.2000 with the
following order :
B
"As the Special Judge who is trying the case bas reported to us that he
reasonably expects to close the trial within six months, we dispose of ,»
this special leave petition permitting the petitioner lo move for bail
again in case the trial is not closed within six months."
c
Even the aforesaid period of six months is over by now, bnt the culmi-
nation of trial is still a far cry. It was in the above background that the present
application is made by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence praying for
"modification of the order dated 31.3.2000 by extending the period for closing
D of the trial for a further period of six months."

We notice that the innnediate impact of the order dated 31.3.2000 was
a positive response as five witnesses were examined on 3.4.2000 itself. But as
the Additional Sessions Judge (Shri A.R. Bhatt) expected his retirement two
months, hence he chose to remain in limbo in regard to this case and hence no
E
progress was made until 10.7.2000 when his successor (Shri B.N. Jain) took
up the matter. The successor Judge appears to have determined to close the trial
within the time frame. He, therefore, decided to follow the legislative mandate
contained in Section 309 of the Code and ordered day-to-day trial for which
he made a schedule also.
F
But the initial alacrity shown by the trial judge did not last long as the
swiftness of the trial was bridled on account of trumpery reasons. The defence
counsel questioned the admissibility of certain documents and raised objec-
tions with regard to the same. Though the trial court disallowed the objections
G as per an order passed on 24.7 .2000 (presumably after hearing both sides at
length) the trial judge adopted a very unwholesome procedure by stopping the
trial for a lengthy period, just to enable the defence to take up that order before
the rtigh Court. Even though the prosecution brought witnesses to be exam-
ined on 8.8.2000, the trial judge hesitated to examine them, and
extended the stay granted by himself and did not choose to take the
·--
H
B.S. PANCHAL v. STATE [THOMAS, J.] 33
evidence of those witnesses on the said date. However, the defence failed to A
challenge the said order and hence the trial proceedings were resuscitated on
-t 16.8.2000.

• On that day the defence raised another objection regarding admissibility
of another document. The trial judge heard elaborate arguments thereon and
upheld the objection and consequently refused to admit that particular docu- B
ment. What the prosecution did at that stage was to proceed to the High Court
against the said order and in the wake of that proceeding respondent filed an
application on 9.11.2000, for enlarging him on bail on the strength of the order
passed by this Court on 31.3.2000 (extracted above).

We are compelled to say that the trial judge should have shown more
c
sensitivity by adopting all measures to accelerate the trial procedure in order
to reach its finish within the time frame indicated by this Court in the order
dated 31.3 .2000 since he knew very well that uoder his orders an accused is
continuing in jail as an uoder-trial for a record period of more than seven
years. Now, we feel that the Additional Judge, whetl1er the present incumbent D
or his predecessor, was not serious in complying with the directions issued
by this Court, though the parties in the case have also contributed their share
in bypassing the said direction.

As pointed out earlier, on different occasions the trial judge has chosen
to decide questions of admissibility of documents or other items of evidence, E
as and when objections thereto were raised and then detailed orders were
passed either upholding or overruling such objections. The worse part is that
after passing the orders the trial court waited for days and weeks for the
concerned parties to go before the higher courts for the purpose of challenging
such interlocutory orders. F
It is an archaic practice that during the evidence collecting stage,
>.
whenever any objection is raised regarding admissibility of any material in
evidence the court does not proceed further without passing order on such
objection. But the fall out of the above practice is this : Suppose the trial court,
in a case, upholds a particular objection and excludes the material from being G
admitted in evidence and then proceeds with the trial and disposes of the case
finally. If the appellate or revisional court, when the same question is re-
._,.. canvassed, could take a different view on the admissibility of that material
in such cases the appellate court would be deprived of the benefit of that
evidence, because that was not put on record by the trial court. In such a H
34 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] 2 S.C.R.

A situation the higher court may have to send the case back to the trial court for
recording that evidence and then to dispose of the case afresh. Why should the
trial prolong like that wmecessarily on account of practices created by our-
selves. Such practices, when realised through the course of long period to be
hindrances which impede steady and swift progress of trial proceedings, must
be recast or re-moulded to give way for better substitutes which would help
B
acceleration of trial proceedings.

When so recast, the practice which can be a better substitute is this :
Whenever an objection is raised during evidence taking stage regarding the
admissibility of any material or item of oral evidence the trial court can make
c a notice of such objection and mark the objected document tentatively as an
exhibit in the case (or record the objected part of the oral evidence) subject
to such objections to be decided at the last stage in the final judgment. If the
court finds at the final stage that the objection so raised is sustainable the
judge or magistrate can keep such evidence excluded from consideration. In
our view there is no illegality in adopting such a course (However, we make
D it clear that if the objection relates to deficiency of stamp duty of a document,
the court has to decide the objection before proceeding furtl1er. For all other
objections tl1e procedure suggested above can be followed.)

The above procedure, if followed, will have two advantages. First is
E that the time in the trial comt, <luting evidence taking stage, would not be
wasted on account of raising such objections and the court can continue to
examine the witnesses. 111e witnesses need not wait for long hours, if not
days. Second is that the superior court, when the same objection is re-
canvassed and reconsidered in appeal or revision against the final judgment
of the trial court, can detennine the correctness of the view taken by the trial
F court regarding that objection, without bothering to remit the case to the trial
court again for fresh disposal. We may also point out that this measure would
not cause any prejudice to the parties to the litigation and would not add to
their misery or expenses.

G We, therefore, make the above as a procedure to be followed by the trial
courts whenever an objection is raised regarding the admissibility of any
material or any item of oral evidence.

Now, for disposal of the present application we may state that there is ·
no point in our granting further time to the trial court to complete the trial.
H It is for the trial court to complete it as early as possible. But we would not
J

B.S. PANCHAL v. STATE [THOMAS, J.] 35
do anything to deprive the accused in custody of his right to move for bail on A
accouot of the delay thus far occasioned. The bail application would be dis-
4- posed of by the court concerned on its own merits. With the above observations
we dispose of this application.

V.S.S. Petition disposed of.
B

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