(1.) This petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure read with Article 227 of the Constitution of India is directed against the order dated May 13, 1999 passed by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sundernagar whereby the evidence of the Petitioner/complainant (here-after referred to as the 'complainant') in Criminal Complaint No. 556-1/93, under Sections 463/197 of the Indian Penal Code has been closed.
(2.) I have heard the learned Counsel for the parties and have also gone through the records.
(3.) The evidence has been closed by the learned trial Magistrate on the ground that recording of the prosecution evidence is required to be completed within a period of two years from the date of the framing of charges for the commission of offences in which the maximum punishment provided may be imprisonment upto seven years. In the instant case the maximum punishment prescribed is imprisonment of seven years, but the recording of the post charge evidence of the complainant was not completed within two years, therefore, the evidence of the complainant stood closed.