NARMADAPRASAD CHUNNADANI Vs. MOORATSINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Station Officer, Dindori, filed a complaint under section 323 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code against the non - applicants - accused Mooratsingh and Kansar along with two others in the Court of the Magistrate, First Class, Dindori, on the allegation that they had on 2-12-1961 assaulted one Narbada Prasad while he was returning from the river Narmada after taking a bath, causing to him simple injuries. THE trial Court convicted the accused-non-applicants under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced them to simple imprisonment for a period of one month together with a fine of Rs. 75 or, in default of payment of the fine, simple imprisonment for a period of one month more, each. On appeal, the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Mandla, acquitted the accussed-non-applicants solely on the ground that as the offence under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code was cognizable by a Court of Nyaya Panchayat, it alone had the exclusive jurisdiction to try the accused and the Magistrate, First Class, Dindori, had no jurisdiction to try them. Reliance was also placed on a decision of Golvalker J. reported in State v. Mehtar Bisau Lodhi and another, 1961 MPLJ 1019. Narbada Prasad has, therefore, come up in revision.

(2.) THE only question that arises for consideration is whether the accused- non-applicants were exclusively triable by a Nyaya Panchayat Court under the circumstances of the case.

(3.) IT is, however, argued that this was not a case which could be initiated on a police report as it was in respect of a non-cognizable offence, and a police officer could not be a complainant of it within the meaning of the first proviso to section 69 of the Act.