MITHAN Vs. MUNICIPAL BOARD OF ORAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Revision touches a fundamental question, namely, the foundation of the revisional powers of the High Court under the Code of Criminal Procedure. The facts of the case are simple. The two applicants are alleged to be prostitutes or dancing girls of the town of Oral. The Municipal Board of Orai made a complaint to a first class Magistrate alleging that their house was being used for the purpose of habitual prostitution to the annoyance of respectable inhabitants of the locality, and requesting for action against them under Section 247 (1), U. P. Municipal Act (Act 2 of 1916). The learned Magistrate summoned the applicants, took the evidence of the witnesses for the parties on oath, found the Board's complaint justi-fied and passed an order under Section 247 (1) forbidding the applicants from using their house for habitual prostitution. They went up in revision to the Sessions Judge, but having failed there have now come up to this Court seeking a reversal of the Magistrate's order.

(2.) A preliminary objection raised on behalf of the Municipal Board is that no revision lies.

(3.) The revisional powers of the High Court are defined in Section 439, Criminal P. C. This provision of the law empowers the High Court to pass such orders as it may deem fit in the case of a proceeding the record of which it has called for under Section 435, or which has been reported to it under Section 438 after an examination under Section 435. A reference to Section 435, Criminal P. C. is therefore necessary for the decision of the preliminary objection. Now, under this section the record of the proceeding has to be of any ''inferior Criminal Court", from which it clearly follows that the revisional powers of the High Court are strictly limited to orders which are passed by any inferior "Criminal Court."