Pranav B Prem

The Delhi High Court has condoned a delay of 272 days in filing a revision petition by the State in a murder case, emphasizing that refusing to do so could result in great injustice to the victim. The State had approached the High Court under Sections 397 and 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, seeking to set aside the Sessions Court’s order that discharged the respondent in an FIR registered under Sections 302, 307, 120B, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, read with Sections 25, 27, 54, 59 of the Arms Act, 1959.

Court’s Observations on the Delay

A single-judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, while addressing the State’s application for condonation of delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 read with Section 482 Cr.P.C., observed: “The allegations against the respondent, in relation to which the captioned revision petition has been filed, are very serious i.e. pertaining to offence of murder, in which charge stands framed against all co-accused persons.” The Additional Public Prosecutor, Naresh Kumar Chahar, represented the petitioner-State, while Advocate M.A. Inayati appeared for the respondent.

State’s Justification for the Delay

The State argued that the delay occurred due to the time-consuming administrative process of obtaining approvals from various authorities. The case file had to be processed through multiple levels, including the Department of Law and Justice and Legal Affairs. The delay was not intentional but resulted from procedural formalities required for challenging the impugned order. The court took note of the procedural delays: “The acquittal report was prepared on 22.07.2023 and forwarded to the Chief Prosecutor, and after discussion with the learned APP, the Chief Prosecutor had forwarded the same. Thereafter, the Director of Prosecution had dealt with the file and had forwarded the same to Deputy Secretary, Law and Justice on 22.08.2023.”

Further detailing the movement of the file, the court observed: “The Legal Assistant and Section Officers had dealt with the file and the same was sent by Deputy Secretary to Special Secretary on 01.09.2023, who in turn had sent the file to Principal Secretary on 04.09.2023. The file was then sent to the Director of Prosecution on 06.09.2023. It is stated that the file was received in the Office of Standing Counsel (Criminal) on 11.09.2023 and thereafter the file was marked to the learned APP on 14.09.2023.”

Seriousness of the Allegations Against the Accused

The primary allegations against the respondent were that he had hatched a criminal conspiracy with the co-accused to murder the victim. The court noted: “The respondent herein had supplied two country-made pistols and 40 live cartridges to co-accused and the said pistols, along with 05 cartridges, were recovered from the possession of co-accused persons.” Given the nature of the charges, the court emphasized that condoning the delay was necessary to ensure justice: “... in case the delay – which stands explained by the State – is not condoned, it may, instead of doing justice, result in causing great injustice to the victim and to the State in a case of offence of murder.”

While condoning the delay, the court also considered the rights of the accused, stating: “Therefore, while balancing the rights of the accused, who shall get an opportunity to oppose the revision petition filed by the State and argue that the impugned order suffers from no infirmity, and the right of the State to challenge an order of discharge of an accused in a case of murder, and taking into account the factors which caused the delay in filing the revision petition, and also remaining cognizant of the larger interest of the community and society in a case of heinous offence as murder, this Court is inclined to allow the application filed by the State for condonation of delay of 272 days in filing the present revision petition.” Accordingly, the High Court condoned the delay and disposed of the petition. However, it clarified that the observations made in the order would not be construed as an opinion on the merits of the case.

Cause Title: The State (Gnct of Delhi) v. Shakeel Ahmed @ Durrani

Case No: CRL.REV.P. 302/2024

Date: January-29-2025

Bench: Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma

[Read/Download order]