T BHASKAR Vs. T NAGARAJU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The order of the District and Sessions Judge, Chittoor passed in purported exercise of power under Section 408 of the Criminal Procedure Code was challenged in Crl.Petition No. 861 of 1997 on the ground that the District and Sessions Judge has no jurisdiction to transfer the criminal case (C.C.No. 402 of 1995 on the file of the V Additional District Munsif, Chittoor) to the Court of the First Additional District Judge, Chittoor, so that the C.C. and the Sessions Case may be tried together.

(2.) The police filed a charge-sheet under Sections 324 and 326IPC against the petitioner. That case was registered as C.C. 402 of 1995 in the Munsif-Magistrate Court, Chittoor another charge-sheet under Section 302 IPC was filed against the petitioner in respect of the offence of murder. It is not in dispute that both arise out of the same transaction or incident, atleast prima facie. The learned District and Sessions Judge felt that in the interests of justice, both the cases should be tried together, so that there may not be conflicting judgments. As the trial in the Sessions Court was not yet over, the learned District and Sessions Judge directed the C.C. to be transferred to the First Additional District Judge.

(3.) The decision of a learned single Judge of this Court in B. Sreedhar Reddy vs. State of A.P. no doubt supports the contention of the petitioner that the Sessions Judge cannot order transfer of a case from one Criminal Court to another Criminal Court of a superior jurisdiction. In that case, the question was whether the bar under the proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 407 of the Criminal Procedure Code was attracted. It was held that the High Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to transfer the criminal case to a superior Court under Sec. 407 (1) and the Sessions Court's power under Section 408 must be confined to the transfer from one Criminal Court to another Criminal Court of the same or inferior status. In coming to that conclusion, the learned Judge stressed the difference in language between the words used in Sections 407 and 408.