The Madras High Court Bench here has directed a complainant to pay an amount as costs accrued to the accused in a criminal case as a pre-condition to restoring a case dismissed by a Judicial Magistrate here for non-prosecution. His non-appearance in the hearings for about two years was the reason for the judge’s ire.
Disposing of a criminal appeal preferred by the complainant, I. Sekaran of Madurai challenging the dismissal in a lower court, Justice S. Vimala said the appellant was liable to pay costs for having wasted the time of the accused - E. Manickam and G. Muthuvel - for about two years.
“The complainant shall pay a cost of Rs.10,000 each to the two accused so that he will realise the value of time spent by the accused and this amount shall be paid within a period of ten days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order,” the judge said.
Strong disapproving the way in which the appellant had failed to prosecute the matter for two long years, the judge said she was restoring the case for the only reason that the complaint related to huge amount of public money available with a denominational trust.
She pointed out that the Magistrate too had made a poignant observation about the conduct of the appellant by stating: “Time and again, this court was constrained to issue notice to the complainant for his appearance… but the complainant would appear in the court only to disappear later.”
However, since the two accused had been appearing promptly during every hearing, the Magistrate dismissed the complaint on August 25 last.
But, challenging the lower court order, the appellant contended that it was his lawyer who failed to appear before the court regularly.
