KAMLA Vs. STATE OF NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, "Cr.P.C.") seeking the quashing of the order dtd. 17/5/2016, passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge-III, North District, Rohini Courts, Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "learned ASJ").

(2.) The facts of the case as are relevant for the disposal of the present petition are that on 30/6/1999, the husband of the petitioner took ill and the petitioner/Kamla accompanied him to the clinic of the respondent No.2/Prem Shanker, where he was given some injection by the respondent No.2. The husband of the petitioner started feeling restless and uncomfortable and collapsed in the gali outside the clinic and died there. An FIR was lodged at Police Station Narela, being FIR No.280/1999 under Sec. 304A IPC.

(3.) Mr. Siddharth Dutta, learned counsel for the petitioner, submitted that after the charge had been framed, the respondent No.2 filed an application under Sec. 468 Cr.P.C. submitting that the case was time barred. Vide order dtd. 2/11/2015, the learned Metropolitan Magistrate dismissed the application as being not maintainable. The accused/respondent No.2 then filed a revision petition before the learned Sessions Court. Vide the impugned order dtd. 17/5/2016, the learned ASJ allowed that revision petition and held that the cognizance could not have been taken under the Delhi Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad Act, 1998 (for short, "DBCP Act"), without a complaint from an officer empowered under the Rules framed under the DBCP Act, which was missing in the present case, and further, since cognizance has been taken later than three years from the date of the incident i.e., with a delay of more than 11 years, and there being no specific order of condonation of delay, the accused/respondent No.2 was discharged.