Lucknow, Jul 28 The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the prolonged pendency of final reports submitted by police in criminal cases and directed all district and sessions judges in Uttar Pradesh to submit details regarding such cases pending in subordinate courts.
A Lucknow bench of Justice Tej Pratap Tiwari, while hearing a matter, observed that keeping final reports pending for years even after completion of investigation was a matter of concern for the criminal justice system.
"It causes unnecessary hardship to accused persons against whom police have submitted final reports after completing the investigation," the court said.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 20.
The court has sought reports from all district and sessions judges through the registrar general, detailing the number of pending final reports, reasons for the delay and the action plan prepared for their early disposal.
The bench directed district judges to regularly review the pending final reports before subordinate courts and ensure that old matters are taken up on priority.
The court observed that nearly 50,000 final reports were pending disposal in Lucknow district courts alone and said a similar situation existed in other districts of the state.
The court noted that delays in preliminary procedures, including issuance of notices to complainants, often resulted in final reports remaining pending for years, causing hardship to accused persons.
The directions were issued while hearing a petition related to a case registered at Gosaiganj police station, where police had submitted a final report on July 11, 2020, but no order has been passed on it so far.
The petitioners told the court that they are businessmen and frequently travel abroad. Due to the pendency of the case, they are facing difficulties in renewal of their passports.
