THE STATE Vs. BALESWAR MULLA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON the foot of a commitment made by a Presidency Magistrate, Calcutta, Under Section 207A of the Procedure Code, seven accused men are arraigned Before this Court in the exercise of its ordinary original criminal jurisdiction all Under Section 395 of the Penal Code and four of them Under Section 397 ibid.

(2.) THE place of crime is the Ganga, a river which is referred to in the books as the Hooghiy. On July 25, 1961 the accused men invaded, so it is said, a steam -launch 'Canmore' by name when she was at anchor in the Ganga near Messrs. Hooghiy Docking and Engineering Co. Ltd. within the limits of the port of Calcutta and committed dacoity there; four with deadly weapons. Roughly speaking, the locus delicti is somewhere opposite the Nimtala (Mat on the Calcutta side of the Ganga.

(3.) TO determine the question of jurisdiction reference must first necessarily be made to Section 8 of the City Sessions Court Act, 20 of 1953, hereinafter referred to, for brevity's sake, as 'the Act.' By virtue thereof the High Court shall not have jurisdiction to try any person unless he is committed to the High Court for trial of a scheduled offence. The Act defines what a scheduled offence is. Section 2(6) of the Act reads: 'Scheduled offence' means an offence specified in the First Schedule.