STATE Vs. MUMTAZ ALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision petition which has been preferred by the State against the order of the Additional Sessions Judge at Hyderabad remanding the case for retrial to the Court of the Special Magistrate.

(2.) THE brief facts are that 51 accused were charged for the commission of dacoity under Section 333 of the Hyderabad Penal Code. Before the trial commenced, pardon was tendered to one of the accused (Zurftqar) in March 1950 by the Magistrate of Taluka Gharbi. The case was transferred to the Court of the Special Magistrate who tried the same and recorded a mass of evidence covering about 157 witnesses. The Special Magistrate held the 24 accused, present before us, guilty of the charge and sentenced them to imprisonment of four years each. The rest of the accused were acquitted. Against that judgment, the accused who were convicted preferred an appeal before the lower Court which allowed the appeal and sent the case for retrial. The Government have filed this revision petition against that order.

(3.) THE learned Judge of the lower Court has referred to two grounds on which he has held that the case ought to have been committed to the Court of the Sessions by the Special Magistrate (the trying Judge) and that he had no jurisdiction to try the same and convict the accused.