JAG BHUSHAN JAIN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The following question has been referred by a learned Single Judge for the decision of this Bench :-' "Whether a person who lodges a first information report is a party interested within the meaning of Section 526 Cr. P. C. in a case prosecuted by the State".

(2.) Section 526 Cr. P. C.--hereinafter called the Code--confers power upon and lays down the condition under which, a High Court can transfer a case pending in a criminal court subordinate to its authority from that court to another criminal court of equal or superior jurisdiction, or itself try it. The manner in which, and the persons by whom, the power can be invoked are given in Sub-section (3) of that section. Under that sub-section. "the High Court may act either on the report of the lower court or on the application of a party interested or on its own initiative."

(3.) The question posed above thus concerns the construction which is to be placed on the expression "party interested". Is it confined in its scope--as contended for by Mr. D.S. Tewari, learned counsel for the opposite party--to the accused and the public prosecutor, on behalf of the State in a case started by the police and a complainant in a case instituted on a private complaint or is it--as argued, by Mr. S.N. Misra, learned counsel for the applicant--wide enough also to include an aggrieved person who lays information about a crime with the police and thereby sets the machinery of law in motion. In my opinion the alternative answer is to be preferred. I shall therefore proceed forthwith to give my reasons for coming to that conclusion.