H M REVANNA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein has questioned the proceedings in S.C. No. 63/90 on the file of the Addl. Sessions Judge, Bangalore Rural Dist. for the offences under Sections 143, 147, 148, 341, 342, 353, 506, 307 and 427 IPC in so far as it relates to the petitioner.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the Circle Inspector of Police Magadi Police Station submitted charge sheet against the accused for the offences punishable under Sections referred to above in C.C. No. 224/1985 on the file of the J.M.F.C. at Magadi. The learned Magistrate passed an order on 4-8-1990 under Section 209 committing the entire case to the Court of Session on the ground that offence under Section 307 is exclusively triable by the Court of Session, as against the A-1 to A-106 as per the separate list enclosed to the order. This order is questioned by the petitioner herein. Though petitioner has raised several contentions in this petition at the time of the arguments, it is restricted to only one question as to whether the committal order passed under Section 209 is valid or not.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that from the perusal of the order it is clear that only accused Nos. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11-13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 33, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 86, 94, 99, 100 were present and all other accused persons were absent including the petitioner. In view of this, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that it is incumbent on the Magistrate to secure the presence of all the accused persons before passing the committal order. To substantiate his argument, he has drawn my attention to Section 209 of Cr. P.C. which reads as follows :-