VEERA VENKATA SATYANARAYAN RICE MILL ACCUSED Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions are directed against the orders passed by the District and Sessions Judge, West Godavarl at Eluru before whom appeals were preferred under Section 6-C of the Essential Commodities Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) making over Criminal Appeal Nos. 65/1974 and 84/ 1974 from his file to the file of the Additional Sessions judge, Eluru.

(2.) According to the petitioner, the learned Additional Sessions Judge Is not competent to hear and dispose of the appeals under Section 6-C of the Act, He, therefore, requests this Court to retransfer the appeals to the file of the District and Sessions, Judge, Eluru from the file of the Additional Sessions Judge.

(3.) The question whether the Additional Sessions judge is competent to hear and dispose of the appeals under Section 6-C of the Act was decided by our learned brother Chlnnappa Reddy, J,. in L. Ramayya vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (I) 1972-1 An. W. R. 118. The learned Judge held that whether the District and Sessions Judge acts as a Court or persona deslgnata, the Additional Sessions Judge Is Incompetent to hear an appeal preferred to the District and Sessions Judge under Section 6-C of the Act. This decision holds the field all the while.