RATTAN LAL AND OTHERS Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT JATAULI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is report dated February 8, 1968 made by the Additional Sessions Judge, Gurgaon under section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code with the recommendation that the order of Shri P.R. Aggarwal, Chief Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Gurgaon dated November 10, 1966, be set aside and the case remanded for trial.

(2.) AN application was made to the Gram Panchayat of village Jatauli under section 21 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 by Amar Singh and others against Balbir Singh and others as the latter had made encroachment upon a public street and common land of the village.

(3.) THE respondents feeling aggrieved of the above order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate invoked revisional jurisdiction of the Court of Sessions under section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code impugning the validity of the order passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate. In that revision petition, it was contended that under section 41 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, the Chief Judicial Magistrate had no power to retain the case on his own file and try it himself. Proviso to section 41 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act lays down that the Chief Judicial Magistrate may for reasons to be recorded in writing transfer any criminal case from one Panchayat to another Panchayat of competent jurisdiction or to another court subordinate to him. The language of that proviso clearly indicates that there does not exist in the Chief Judicial Magistrate any power to retain a case on his own file after he transfers the case from a Gram Panchayat, If the legislature contemplated that a case could be transferred by the Chief Judicial Magistrate to his own file, the legislature would have specifically provided to that effect. Thus there does not exist any power in a Chief Judicial Magistrate to order after transfer of a case from a Panchayat for its trial by himself.