(1.) The petitioner, who is serving a sentence of 10 years rigorous imprisonment is also being proceeded against for an alleged offence under section 333/353/186, Indian Penal Code . The commitment proceedings are pending in the Court of Shri K. N. Joshi, Magistrate I Class, Delhi. The present application has been forwarded from District Jail, Hissar, where the petitioner is at present lodged as a convict. In this application he is described to be originally a resident of Amritsar and he seeks to have the commitment proceedings transferred to the Court of some other Magistrate. The grounds on which transfer is sought are that the petitioner has, on occasions, been pressurised by the learned Magistrate into making a confession and the Court is treating the accused as if he is a criminal though he is entitied to be presumed to be innocent till proved guilty. The learned Magistrate has also been described to be acting in accordance with the desire of the police authorities of Sabzi Mandi Police Station and not independently of them. The main grievance, however, as stated in the petition, is that he has not been given the documents to which he is lawfully entitled and the Medical Officer's statement and the site plan have been specifically mentioned to be the documents not supplied to him. The copies supplied have also been described not to be legible.
(2.) The petitioner's prayer for presence in this Court and for permission to argue the case personally was granted, but on his appearance, I felt that being a layman, he could not distinguish between grounds which would sustain a transfer application and those which are open only on appeals and revisions from impugned orders. In order to secure help to the petitioner, who said that the could not afford a counsel, I requested Shri Madan Bhatia, Advocate, a distinguished member of the bar, to assist the petitioner. Shri Bhatia very kindly agreed to do so and he has said all that could be said in support of the transfer application. To have a clear glimpse of the picture. I sent for the record of the case also and the same was, I am informed, inspected by Shri Bhatia.
(3.) Shri Bhatia has concentrated on a new argument not contained in the application forwarded by the accused-petitioner. This argument is based on a report bearing no date purporting to be prepared by Shri Tirath Ram Rukhra, Prosecuting Subinspector, in which after narrating the history of the proceedings before the learned Magistrate, it has been observed as follows :