The Supreme Court has expressed shock at the disappearance of case records while in transit from the State Forensic Science Laboratory to a trial court in Gujarat.

The local police could not file a chargesheet in the case of forgery and fraudulent sale of land despite a complaint being lodged in 2007 because the documents were lost in transit.

The top court said such incidents "strike at the very core of the criminal justice system".

The court directed the Gujarat government to conclude the investigation within six weeks, file an appropriate application before the trial court and a compliance report before it.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih passed the directions while dealing with an appeal filed by Sahil Abdul Sattar Mansuri and other appellants challenging the dismissal of their appeal by the Gujarat government, which had declined to entertain their plea for a direction to Bhiloda police station to file a chargesheet in the case.

The apex court said: "In the present factual matrix, nearly two decades have passed since the initiation of the complaint by the original complainant. However, it is a matter of serious concern that despite the lapse of such an inordinate period of time, the investigation is yet to reach any meaningful conclusion. From a bare perusal of the record, it is evident that the original complainant had run from pillar to post for filing of a chargesheet in connection with his complaint, but to no avail."

The Gujarat government submitted that during re-investigation, the original case papers remained untraceable.