Judgment

Thomas, J.-On the facts and circumstances of the case, no notice to any person is necessary in this application.

2. In the main appeal, a three Judge Bench of this Court to which two of us were parties, has issued certain directions for effective en­forcement of the right to speedy trial flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution of India (as recognised by a seven Judge Bench of this Court in A.R. Antuley v. R.S. Nayak1. Relevant among such directions for the present purpose, are the following :

Direction No. (i) :-In cases where the trial is for an offence pun­ishable with imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years, whether the accused is in jail or not, the court shall close prosecution evidence on completion of a period of two years from the date of recording the plea of the accused on the charges framed whether prosecution has examined all the wit­nesses or not, within the said period and the Court can proceed to the next step provided by law for the trial of the case.

Direction No. (iii) :-If the offence under trial is punishable with imprisonment for a period exceeding 7 years, whether the accused is in jail or not, the Court shall close prosecution evidence o