Judgment 1. This application is for quashing of the entire criminal prosecution including the order framing charge dt. 7-5-1970 by which the petitioner has been charged for the offence under S.409 of the Penal Code by Shri B.P. Sharma, Munsif Magistrate, 1st Class, Daltonganj in G.R. case No. 78 of 1969. 2. The allegation appears to be that the petitioner working as Head Clerk in the office of the Civil Surgeon had defalcated Rs. 34/-, Rs. 83.75 P and Rs. 70.12 P during the period between 1962 and 1966. 3. The first information report had been lodged on 22-1-1967. The charge-sheet had been submitted in the year 1969. After cognizance charge has been framed in the year 1970. Thereafter, not a single witness had been examined in the case. Ultimately after being much harassed and unable to tolerate the rigors of criminal prosecution, the petitioner took shelter before this Court by filing the present application for quashing of the entire prosecution. 4. No counter-affidavit has been filed and all the facts stated above, have been stated by the petitioner supported by an affidavit. It is really unfortunate that the criminal prosecution has been allowed to linger in the manner illustrated in this case. There could not have been any justification whatsoever for not examining even a single witness in course of ten years of time in a prosecution relating to an offence which had occurred about five years before. It would appear that an occurrence of 24 years back had been kept alive on the strength of the prosecution, although no witness had been examined for complete ten years from the date of the charge till the petitioner came to this Court in the present application in the year 1981, although the trial should not have taken more than six months or one year at the utmost. The result is that the petitioner has to face all the rigors of criminal prosecution including the elements of disgrace, stigma and harassment for fairly unreasonable period. The result is that the petitioner has to face all the rigors of criminal prosecution including the elements of disgrace, stigma and harassment for fairly unreasonable period. If the intention of such criminal prosecution and hidden prayer of punishment is to make the society worth living and to regulate human conduct amidst diversity of inclination and desire and the aim of punishment is reformation, at the same time, it is also necessary to curtail the unregulated and unmethodical way of continuation of criminal prosecution at the whim and desire of any court entrusted with the work of administration of justice. Such curtailment of the abuse of the process of the court is based upon universal and rational principles. If law is an agent of social control, the court implementing the dictates of law has also to, see the element of human lying behind and in between a litigant or accused, law and the court. This has become all the more necessary as a feeling of orderly life is embedded in the very human instinct. 5. In the instant case the petitioner is under the strain of criminal prosecution for the last 19 years and thus he, being a public servant, must have been left without any alternative means of livelihood, in the manner in which this criminal case is proceeding. Now it has become uncertain that when the case will come to an end and ultimately what would be the fate of the petitioner. The petitioner has definitely been thrown in a state of un-certainty and absolutely there is no explanation or reason on the part of the prosecutor as to under what circumstance the case had been lingering and this is also not apparent from the case records at all. 6. The only firm conclusion would be that neither there is any evidence nor any material to support the allegations and the charge levelled against the petitioner. The continuation of such criminal case is definitely an abuse of the process of the court and thus I am not inclined to allow such criminal prosecution based upon only whim and pleasure and not on materials and evidence, to continue any further. 7. In the result, this application is allowed and the entire criminal prosecution against the petitioner in the instant case is hereby quashed.