In Brief
Swapan Kumar Chatterjee was accused in a 1983 corruption case where the trial had been ongoing for over 30 years. The prosecution sought to examine a handwriting expert witness (Mr. H.S. Tuteja) in 2004, but failed repeatedly to produce him despite thirteen years of adjournments and multiple court orders. The Supreme Court held that allowing such belated examination after repeated failures and explicit judicial warnings to expedite the trial would constitute abuse of process. The Court rejected the application to examine the witness, emphasizing that Section 311 of the CPC must be exercised cautiously and cannot be used to encourage successive applications undermining procedural fairness to the accused."
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