SC for pan-India guidelines to deal with inordinate delays in framing of charges in criminal cases

Expressing serious concern over inordinate delays running into years in framing of charges after filing of chargesheets in criminal cases, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to lay down pan-India guidelines to address the malaise.

“We have noticed, time and again, the charges are not being framed even months and years after the filing of the chargesheet. This is one of the primary reasons for the trial getting delayed. Unless and until the charges are framed in a criminal case, the trial cannot commence. As such, this situation seems to be prevalent in most of the courts and we are of the considered opinion that certain directions need to be issued pan-India in this regard,” a Bench led by Justice Aravind Kumar said.

The Bench, which also included Justice NV Anjaria, appointed senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and S Nagamuthu as amicus curiae to assist it in the matter.

“Why take years and years to frame charges? In civil cases non-framing of the issues and in criminal cases non-framing of charges. We want to know what the difficulties are and we will issue directions for all courts across the country. We propose to do it,” the Bench said.

The order came during the hearing of a bail plea of an accused in a criminal case from Bihar after it was informed that charges had not been framed for the past two years despite the filing of a charge sheet.

The Bench referred to Section 251(b) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) which contemplates framing of charges within 60 days from first hearing on charge. “We will take cue from that (BNSS provision) and in all pending matters, we propose…, we want your assistance,” it told Mehta.

Earlier, the top court had expressed shock over 600 criminal cases where charges have not been framed.