JUDGMENT

Sandeep Moudgil, J.

The present petition has been filed under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. seeking issuance of directions to the Illaqa Magistrate/Trial Court Sonipat to complete the trial of the complaint under Section 138 of the N.I. Act, 1881 bearing No.NACT/1952/2019 dated 19.12.2019 within six months.

2. It has been averred by learned counsel for the petitioner that the complaint in question had been filed on 19.12.2019 and at present the same is fixed for hearing on 27.09.2023. The said adjournment had been given by the trial Court on 13.01.2023 i.e. a long date of nine months has been granted, which shows that the trial Court is delaying the conclusion of the trial.

3. Vide order dated 10.04.2023, this Court had called for a report from the concerned Judicial Officer explaining the reasons for giving such a long date. Pursuant thereto, the concerned judicial officer sent her report/explanation vide letter No.204 of 17.04.2023 forwarded by the learned District & Sessions Judge, Sonipat vide his letter No.3891 of 18.04.2023. The relevant extract of the said report is as under:

"It is further humbly submitted that the court of undersigned is the only exclusive court at District Head Quarter, Sonipat which is dealing with the cases of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The court of the undersigned had total pendency of 5366 cases as on 01.01.2023 and the undersigned had an Action Plan for the year 2022-23 in which the disposal of 750 old cases was to be achieved by 31.03.2023. Moreover, as per the direction of Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana all more than ten years old cases and five years old cases pending in the court were to be decided up till 31.12.2022 and 31.03.2023 respectively. Further, it would be appropriate to mention here that the average monthly institution of new cases in the court of undersigned is of approximately 90 cases. The undersigned has decided four 10 years old cases pending in the court of undersigned before 31.12.2022 and out of total 106 five years old cases (6 cases stayed) 86 cases were decided by the undersigned up to 31.03.2023.

It is most humbly submitted that the case titled "Vikas Singh v. Hamara Production Pvt. Ltd." bearing CIS No.1952 of 2019 which was instituted on 19.12.2019 is pending in the court of undersigned. Due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic no effective proceedings could be carried out for a period of almost two years in all the cases pending in the courts.

The present case was at serial number 1897 in terms of total cases ending in the court of undersigned as on 13.01.2023 (last date of hearing). It was only due to heavy pendency of cases in the court of undersigned as highlighted above, and to achieve the target of disposal of old cases and keeping in view the date of institution of the present matter the next date of hearing in the case was fixed from 13.01.2023 o 27.09.2023.

The undersigned most humbly submits that there are urgent and time bound matters which need to be adjudicated without any loss of time and similarly the very old cases have to be decided at the earliest by granting short adjournments. The undersigned most respectfully submits that there was no intention to prolong or delay the proceedings of this case rather the undersigned was under duty to give priority to the other very old cases pending in the Court of the undersigned including cases falling in Action Plan category. However, earnest efforts are being made by the undersigned to balance the old cases and as well new cases so that all category of cases are accommodated and there is no unreasonable delay."

4. I have gone through the explanation submitted by the concerned Judicial Officer and am of the view that same is satisfactory. It has been specificall