IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.31473 of 2009 ANIL KUMAR GUPTA @ ANIL KUMAR SAH @ ANIL KUMAR Versus STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 2 27.10.2009 Heard. The case relates to bursting of gang of vehicle lifters for sale of vehicles by forging and fabricating the documents of ownership. Earlier, prayer for bail of the petitioner has been rejected vides Cr.Misc.No.40549/2008. The present prayer prayer for bail has been made under Section 437(6)Cr.P.C. on the ground that the charges were framed on 23.12.2008 and the first date fixed in the case for evidence was 6.1.2009 and even after expiry of sixty days of the first date fixed for evidence, no witnesses were produced and that entitles the accused to bail. If one considers the provision of Section 437(6)Cr.P.C., one may find that this is not a provision which carries a mandate of law that in all cases of the nature, the accused persons are entitled to bail. The court has to assign reasons for not acting under the provision and as soon as the statute permits not acting under the provision by assigning reasons, the provision can be construed as obligatory and not mandatory. It is not clear to this Court whether the Magistrate has been approached under Section 437(6)Cr.P.C., 2 but the order passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Sitamarhi , does indicate that a submission to this effect was made before him. Pendency of the cases are increasing day by day for many reasons, the most important being the dearth of Judges. This Court has a total strength of forty-three Judges but it is functioning only with almost a half of its strength, i.e. 22, Judges. The prosecution of criminal cases is pending due to non-production of the witnesses by the Police officials. It is apt to point out that the Police are unable to perform their duties as defined under Section 107(2)Cr.P.C. They have other duties also, whereafter they are least concerned with their dues under the Code of Criminal Procedure. Besides, the documents are also not produced by the parties in time or by the agency or department who have their custody. These are some of the reasons for not concluding the trial in sixty days. For the above reasons, prayer for bail of the petitioner is dismissed. SKBOSE (Dharnidhar Jha)