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Jaspal Atwal, who was convicted in 1987 of the attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister, was at the centre of a controversy last year when he was invited to dine with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the PM’s official visit to India.

Gill, who testified at his trial that he was attacked by Jaspal and Vikram just outside the temple and claimed to have retrieved a gun that fell out of Vikram’s possession and fired the gun at Harjit Atwal in self-defence, appealed his convictions.

In July 2018 a three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned the convictions and ordered a new trial. The new trial was scheduled to go before a jury in April, but Gill’s lawyers applied to have the charges set aside due to the length of time the case had taken. His lawyers claimed that Gill’s right to be tried within a reasonable time had been breached even after deducting time that would have been his responsibility.

In his ruling on the delay application, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Harvey noted that the case had initially proceeded at a “relaxed” pace to a preliminary hearing and the first trial. The judge said that once the first trial began it “sputtered” on several occasions, making the total almost 21 months from start to finish.

The Crown, noting that the defence had not raised any arguments about delays during the first trial, opposed the application for a stay of proceedings.

The judge, who had to consider new guidelines calling for cases in superior courts to be completed by 30 months, said he appreciated the seriousness of the charges and the need to have them adjudicated. But the judge found that the delay was well in excess of the 30 months and that the Crown had not rebutted the presumption that there was an unreasonable delay.

Tony Paisana, Gill’s lawyer, said it had been a “long journey” and his client is just grateful to have had a chance to express the prejudice he’d suffered by the delay. “And in his particular circumstance, there was prejudice that impacted his business interests, his personal life and the stress of the impending proceedings for a long time.”

kfraser@postmedia.com

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