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sheet was filed in the court of Judicial Magistrate, Patna.

13. The petitioner was arrested on 6.7.1975 as stated above. He was said to be involved in the offence of attempt to murder the then Chief Justice of India Sri A.N. Ray. That trial was taken up first at Delhi and concluded on 1.12.1976. Petitioner was found guilty and sentenced to four years rigorous imprisonment alongwith some others. Petitioner filed an appeal before the Delhi High Court and obtained bail but he could not be released, for he was also involved in L.N. Misra murder case. He was shifted to Patna Jail and produced before the Patna court on 19.12.1976. In the first week of January, 1977, the petitioner and other accused requested for supply of certain documents not supplied to them till then. The prosecution declined the request on the ground that they are not relying on those documents, which stand was upheld by the learned Magistrate. Petitioner filed a revision in the High Court of Patna against the order of the learned Magistrate, which was dismissed. Several interlocutory applications were filed before the learned Committing Magistrate and orders passed at this stage. Some of them pertained to engaging of counsel for the accused, their treatment in the jail, the difficulties created in the jail for them and so on.

14. On 30th March, 1978, petitioner was granted bail by this Court and released a few days later.

At this stage, it appears, Vikram who had turned approver and had made a confessional statement, retracted his confession while in Patna jail. There is a good amount of controversy with respect to the circumstances in which he retracted his confession viz., whether it was done voluntarily or under pressure of the officers of the Government of Bihar. Be that as it may, a situation arose where the C.B.I. and the Bihar C.I.D. were freely trading charges of false implication against each other. The C.B.I. seems to have felt that it cannot prosecute its case properly at Patna and, therefore, the Attorney General of India moved this Court for transferring the case to Delhi. This court, without going into the truth or otherwise of the allegations on the basis of which transfer was sought, ordered transfer. After such transfer, the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi committed the case to Sessions on 2 Sections 1980. The case was made over to Sri D.C. Aggarwal, Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi. The accused was produced before him in March, 1980. Charges were framed in January, 1981 and trial commenced.

1. Though the petitioner was arrested on 6.7.1975, he was not produced before the Patna court in this case till 19.12.1976. All this while, it was obtaining extensions of his remand without producing the petitioner before the Patna court and without even notice to him. Until he was produced in Patna court in December, 1976, the petitioner did not even know that he was also implicated in L.N. Misra murder case; The charge-sheet was filed only in December, 1975. Long prior thereto, the accused had become entitled to release under Section 167 Cr.P.C. but he was not aware of all these facts and, therefore, did not assert the said right. Even though he was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in the appeal preferred against his conviction in the case relating to Chief Justice Ray, he was not released because of his implication in L.N. Misra case. The petitioner continued to be in jail till 30.3.1978, when this Court granted bail. The petitioner's incarceration from 21.1.1977 (the date of grant of bail by Delhi High Court) upto 30.3.1978, is illegal and unconstitutional. It vitiates the entire proceedings.

24. The learned Attorney General, who appeared for the C.B.I., submitted in the first instance that this Court should not lay down any parameters or guidelines concerning the right to speedy trial. According to him, the CrPC contains enough provisions which serve as guidelines for ensuring a speedy trial. He requested that the cases placed before this Bench be disposed of on merits without laying down any general propositions. He submitted that Section 482 of the CrPC is an adequate remedy. It can be invoked by an accused who has been denied a speedy trial. He says that the High Court has power to quash criminal proceedings if such a course is found necessary to secure the ends of justice. Unjustifiable delay in concluding a Criminal case does amount to abuse of process of court and can be quashed under the said provision. He took us through the entire proceedings of this case, both in the Patna court and the Delhi court and submitted that the charge of delay against the prosecution is totally baseless and that the delay has in fact been caused by the accused themselves throughout. He submitted that the accused had been repeatedly filing several frivolous interlocutory applications and praying for postponing the trial by adopting several tactics. For instance, very often one of the accused used to absent himself and then the other accused would say that the trial should not proceed in the absence of that accused. Even though they were in good health, they did not attend the court pleading ill-health. This fact has been certified by the jailor of Patna jail, more than once. Their counsel too was not cooperating with the court in going on with the trial five days a week. They were prepared to go on only on three days a week and that too not for the whole day. The evidence is too voluminous and there are thousands of documents. In the circumstances, he said, naturally the trial took quite some time. The material on record establishes clearly that the prosecution was always anxious to conclude the trial speedily and that in fact the trial proceeded at a record speed, wherein 151 witnesses were examined. It closed its case in 1986. Then the accused came forward with an application to examine certain witnesses who were wholly unnecessary and were accordingly given up by the prosecution. When it was rightly refused by the learned Sessions Judge, they went to the High Court and got all further proceedings and the trial stayed. Thus, it is the accused and the accused alone who have been protracting the trial and cannot, therefore, complain of infringement of their right to speedy trial, contended the learned Attorney General.