ANITA BALA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition, the petitioner challenges the orders passed by the learned trial Court (JMIC, Jalandhar), dated 24.07.2017, dismissing an application filed under Section 154 of the Indian Evidence Act read with Section 311 Cr.P.C., by which application permission was sought to recall a witness already summoned upon an application earlier filed under Section 311 Cr.P.C.; the second application having been moved for the purpose of his cross-examination by the prosecution/complainant, on the ground that the witness had turned hostile and therefore the prosecution/complainant had a right to cross-examine him, and that the witness being 85 years of age had not understood the 'purport of the questions' put to him.

(2.) The order of the learned trial Court shows that after the said witness (one Sh.Jaswant Singh Ahluwalia) had been summoned on an application filed by the complainant under Section 311 Cr.P.C., several opportunities were granted to the complainant in the prosecution, between 001.2017 and 05.05.2017, after which the witness appeared and was duly cross-examined by the counsel for the accused.

(3.) Despite opportunity avialable to counsel for the complainant & prosecution on that date, they did not seek to cross-examine their witness. Consequently holding that the application had been filed only to delay proceedings, it was dismissed by the trial Court.