The Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 29, 2025) decided to examine the reasons behind criminal courts chronically delaying the framing of charges for years together in cases ripe for trial.

A Bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N.V. Anjaria voiced concern about trial judges failing to frame charges, one of the first steps in trial proceedings, in cases in which chargesheets were filed months, even years, ago.

“This is a problem seen across the country. Charges are not filed in cases even though police have filed chargesheets,” Justice Kumar observed orally.

The court noted that trial proceedings were facing inordinate delays in the framing of charges, even though Section 251 (1) (b) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) mandated that it must be done within 60 days in sessio

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