Supreme Court urges CBI Director to take steps to monitor filing of appeals, set up mechanism to ensure appeals are filed without delay

The Supreme Court on Friday urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to set up a monitoring mechanism to ensure that appeals are filed without delays..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah while dismissing the appeal on account of delay asked the CBI Director to ensure that steps are taken on the administrative side to monitor filing of appeals. “We are of the view that the CBI must take all necessary steps to ensure that these kinds of delays do not occur in the future. Delays are liable to cause grave misgivings on reasons for delay. We direct Director CBI to take necessary administrative steps to monitor filing of appeals on an ICT platform so that delays don't take place,” the Court said..The Court was hearing an appeal filed 647 days after the verdict given by High Court.In November 2018, a Special CBI judge at Raipur had convicted the accused under Sections 120B, 467, 468 of Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced him to three years imprisonment. The High Court by its judgment of June, 2019, reversed the judgment and acquitted the accused. The appeal against the same was filed by CBI after 647 days..When CBI stated that delay was on account of COVID, the bench said, “There is a delay of 647 days. In application for condonation of delay, explanation given is on grounds of covid which doesn’t explain the entire duration of delay. Explanation of delay on account of Covid is not acceptable since the judgment was much before the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.".In view of the above, the Court noted that it has to determine whether a case for condonation of delay is made out.