JUDGMENT :

(A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.)

This O.P.(Crl.) was instituted suo motu by the High Court pursuant to the resolution dated 22.08.2023 of the Administrative Committee of this Court. The file has been placed before us pursuant to a direction of the Hon'ble the Chief Justice.

2. The trigger for registering the suo motu case appears to have been the burgeoning figures showing the pendency of petty cases before the various Magistrate Courts in the State. Statistics show that, as of now, 1.59 lakhs of petty cases are pending before various Magistrate Courts across the State. An enquiry into the reasons for these alarming figures reveal that a significant number of those cases represent instances where the prosecution has been unable to secure the presence of the accused either because the address furnished is fake or incomplete or for such other reasons. It is stated that while in the past, the Magistrates used to rely on the provisions of Section 258 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [hereinafter referred to as the “Cr.P.C.”] to stop the proceedings in cases where the presence of the accused could not be secured despite the earnest efforts of the prosecution, they have since de