Sns 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO.3486 OF 2010 IN CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. OF 2010 Diu and Daman Union Territory ..Applicant. v/s. 1 Dhirajlal N. Patel 2 Gopalbhai D. Tandel 3The State ..Respondents. Mr. D.A.Nalawade, adv. for the Applicant. Mr. Pravartak Phatak i/by Uday P. Warunjikar, advs. for the respondent nos. 1 and 2. Smt. G.P.Mulekar, APP for the R.No.3. CORAM : J.H.BHATIA, J. DATE : 16th September, 2011 PC : 1 Heard. 2 Prosecution seeks condonation of delay in filing the appeal against the acquittal. The criminal case no.5/96 ended in acquittal by the order dated 20th July, 2007 passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Daman and Diu in defaulcation case pertaining to a co-operative society. It is contended that papers were misplaced from the concerned police station and in January, 2009 they were traced out and submitted to the PP for opinion. The Public Prosecutor offered his opinion and advised to prefer appeal on 30.3.2009 and then the matter was sent to the standing counsel Sns 2 Daman and Diu at Bombay on 23rd February, 2010. Appeal alongwith this application was filed on 21st July, 2010. Firstly, there is no valid explanation why the record was not traceable for one and half years. Period of appeal is only 60 days. The Public Prosecutor at Daman and Diu took more than 60 days to give his opinion. The Standing counsel for Daman and Diu Administration at Bombay took more than three months to file appeal after getting the papers. Thus, there was complete lethargy and lack of diligence at every level. Case pertains to 1996 and thus, it is more than 15 years old. In my opinion, prosecution has utterly failed to satisfactorily explain delay which is close to three years. 3 Therefore, the application stands rejected. (J.H.BHATIA, J.)