NON-REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

SLP (Crl.) Nos. 3911/2008 and 4039/2008

Bharat Malubhai Modhwadia                                   … Petitioner

VERSUS

The State of Gujarat and another                           …Respondents

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1. The petitioner is aggrieved by an interim order granting

stay of operation of the order dated 29th of March, 2008 passed

by  the  Trial  Court  in  exercise  of  its  powers  conferred  by

Section 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in short, “The

Code”).  By the order dated 29th of March, 2008, the Additional

Sessions  Judge  and  Presiding  Officer,  Fast  Track  Court,

Porbandar  allowed  an  application  under  Section  319  of  the

Code  and  directed  that  bailable  warrant  of  Rs.  25000/-  be

issued  against  Sh.  Babubhai  Bhimabhai  Bokhria  and  also

directed his production as accused in the further proceedings of

the case.   

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2. Against  the  aforesaid  order,  a  Special  Criminal

Application has been filed, which is now pending decision.  By

way of an interim relief, the aforesaid order of the Additional

Sessions Judge and Presiding Officer, Porbandar dated 29th of

March, 2008 was stayed.   

3. Against  the  aforesaid  interim order of the High Court,

this Court on 16th of May, 2008 passed the following order by

way of an interim measure:-

“Issue notice. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of Respondent No. 2 accepts notice.  He submits that the case is complete and has been listed for judgment tomorrow.  He may file his counter affidavit  within four weeks.  Meanwhile, in case any order is passed it may be subject to the final order passed by this Court.   Issue notice to other respondents also.”        

4. However, an application was filed by the petitioner for

vacating  the  interim order  granted  by the  High  Court  in  the

aforesaid pending application before it.  By an order dated 6th

of May, 2008, the application for vacating the interim order, as

indicated  hereinabove,  was  however  rejected  by  a  learned

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Judge of the High Court, against which another Special Leave

Petition being SLP (Crl.) No. 4039 of 2008 has been filed in

this Court, in which the following order was passed :-

  “Issue notice. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of Respondent No. 2 accepts notice.  He submits that the case is complete and has been listed for judgment tomorrow.  He may file his counter affidavit  within four weeks.  Meanwhile, in case any order is passed it may be subject to the final order passed by this Court.   

Issue notice to other respondents also.”        

5. The aforesaid two Special Leave Petitions came up for

hearing before us.  After giving hearing to the learned Senior

counsel appearing for the parties and after going through the

impugned  orders  and  without  going  into  the  merits  of  the

questions raised before us on the application under Section 319

of the Code,  we feel  it  proper to dispose of the SLPs in the

following manner :-

a) Since the Special Criminal case is now pending before

the  High  Court,  we feel  it  proper  to  request  the  High

Court  to  decide  the  said  case  within  a  period  of  four

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weeks from this date without granting any unnecessary

adjournments to either of the parties.   

b) In the event, the decision has not yet been arrived at in

the  trial,  in  that  case,  the  judgment  shall  not  be

pronounced by the trial Court for a period of four weeks

from this date.   

6. With  the  aforesaid  directions,  these  Special  Leave

Petitions are disposed of.     

…..……………………J. [TARUN CHATTERJEE]

….……………………J. [V.S. SIRPURKAR]

New Delhi;  November 14, 2008

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