Why one year for a report in ‘trivial’ matter: Bombay HC to top cop – Times of India

Mumbai: Bombay high court (HC) has directed the Mumbai top cop to initiate an appropriate inquiry against an investigating officer who took over a year to file a report in a “trivial” matter. HC passed the order while quashing a 2014 case against then engineering student for rashly riding a bike.
“Such inquiry report to be submitted to this court within three months,” a bench of justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale said on Friday on a petition filed by Mohaseen Khan, now a 27-year-old engineer.
He petitioned HC this year to quash criminal proceedings and an order passed by a magistrate on grounds that the prosecution was barred by limitation. Under criminal law, a magistrate can take cognizance of an offence within a year of its commission, if sentence it attracts is up to a year imprisonment, his lawyer argued. Maximum punishment for rash driving is 6 months. The magistrate took cognisance, a pre-trial step, in 2017.
Khan’s lawyer said he lost a chance to work in Oman due to the case, but the offer is still open and so he moved the HC.
The prosecutor argued that a magistrate has powers to extend time to take cognisance in public interest.
HC said there was “nothing to show that the court of magistrate had either applied its mind to the aspect of expiry of limitation or… condoning the delay” It said the magistrate’s could not have taken cognizance in 2017 and held “further continuance of criminal proceedings cannot be sustained.” —Swati Deshpande