(1.) This is a petition under Section 526 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by the State for transfer of Sessions Cases 43/8/63 and 1/8/64 from the file of the court of Session Raichur, to any other Sessions Court. These two sessions cases are said to be in the nature of a case and a counter-case and were therefore being posted together with a certain interval. The circumstances leading to the filing of this transfer petition relate however only to what happened at the trial of Sessions Case No. 43/8/63.
(2.) Although what may be called pleadings in this case have been long and argumentative, the facts which are really germane to the disposal of this petition and the controversies relating thereto fall within very small compass. A decision on the truth or otherwise of those facts and their relevancy to the prayer or legal value from the point of view of Section 526 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will conclude this petition one way or the other. I do not therefore propose to deal with or refer to other matters except when reference to them is necessary for the disposal of the principal controversy.
(3.) Sessions Case No. 43/8/63 was taken up for trial on 24th November 1965, charges were framed and pleas of the accused recorded. As the Public Prosecutor was not quit well to go on with that case that day, it was adjourned to the following day at his request. On that day, i.e., 25th November 1965, one formal witness was examined after which examination of an eyewitness was taken up. Chief examination of that witness was concluded early on the next day, i.e., 26th November 1965. Cross-examination was then commenced on behalf of accused Nos. 1 to 5 by Mr. Manzural Hassan and continued until about 1 O'clock when he sought and obtained permission of the court to attend to Friday prayers. Whether and if so, at what time he returned before the court rose for midday recess I shall consider at a later stage. During the recess the Public Prosecutor Mr. Mahadevappa appears to have been the Judge in his chambers and complained to him about the intervention of the Judge in the course of the Cross-examination of the witness by Mr. Manzural Hassan. According to the affidavit now filed by the Public Prosecutor in support of this petition that intervention was by way of putting questions at considerable length by the court itself without a note being made to the effect that they were court questions. The affidavit contains the following sentence descriptive of that complaint: