JUDGMENT - M.F. SALDANHA, J.:---Is there just no enforceable deadline for the termination of State Prosecutions, or is an accused committed to suffer in silence indefinitely is such proceedings span decades ? It is to be assumed that the Constitutional guarantee of a right to a speedy trial only envisages that there is due compliance if the proceedings commence within a reasonable time without any possibility of the end being in sight. In other words, where a citizen is faced with the now rather familiar pattern of a case being part heard for an indefinite period of time, would the High Court be justified in exercising its inherent powers to quash such proceedings ? The inherent powers under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 are often exercised for purposes of quashing a proceeding where no, prima facie, case is made out, or where the prospects of a conviction appear to be extremely bleak, or in situations where the machinery of a Criminal Court is being used for a collateral purpose.

2. Quashing of such proceedings is justified on the ground that it constitutes abuse of judicial process. On the same analogy, if it were to be demonstrated that a prosecuting authori

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