JASWANT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the charge -sheet submitted by the police in the Court of Shri R.P. Nagrath, Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Ferozepur, for the commitment of the case to the Court of Session for trial, the name of the present petitioner Jaswant Singh was mentioned in column No. 2. The chargesheet was in respect of the offence under section 307/326/34 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Committing Magistrate issued warrant of arrest against the petitioner. The petitioner has filed this petition for quashing the said order on the ground that it is without jurisdiction.

(2.) THE present case is fully covered by Surinder Kumar and others v. The State of Punjab, 1977 C.L.R. (Pb. and Har.) 359. The arguments advanced before me on behalf of the parties are covered by the following passage from that judgment : - "In the scheme set out above, the Magistrate is required to commit those accused persons who have been forwarded by the police to him for that purpose. As already pointed out, the petitioners are not the persons charge -sheeted by the police for committing the crime alleged against them. Existence of their names in column No. 2 of the report above -said and request of the police for their discharge make it abundantly clear that the petitioners were not forwarded to the Magistrate for committing them for trial. In this situation, how can the question of their commitment to the Court of Session arise ? All the same learned Assistant Advocate General urged that the Magistrate is not bound by the report of the police submitted under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Reliance was placed on 1961 P.L.R. 571 Ajit Singh and another v. The State, laying down that if on the evidence actually recorded by the Court the guilt of an accused person is substantiated, the Court cannot be called upon to acquit the accused, merely because an investigating officer has for certain reasons considered the accused to be innocent. At the present stage of the case in hand this ruling is distinguishable. After the amendment of the commitment proceedings the Magistrate now acting under section 209 of the Code, is not required to record evidence. On the other hand, once the offence is found triable exclusively by the Court of Session the Magistrate has to commit an accused person." Hence as the petitioner has not been forwarded by the police to the Magistrate for committing him for trial, the Committing Magistrate had no jurisdiction to summon him.

(3.) FOR the foregoing reason I quash the order passed by the learned Magistrate summoning the presence petitioner.