EMPEROR Vs. KALI CHARAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a reference by the learned Sessions Judge of Gorakhpur, submitting the record to the High Court with a recommendation that the commitment of the accused Kali Charan Arakh, Behari Arakh, and Girdhari Arakh, who are British subjects, be quashed under Section 215 of Act No. V of 1898, on the ground that the name was illegal. The offence with which the accused are charged is alleged to have been committed in Nepal. The Magistrate inquired into the charge without having the certificate of the Political Agent of Nepal as required by Section 188 of the Criminal P. C.. THIS section provides that no charge as to, among others, an offence committed beyond the limits of British India, or by a British subject in the territories of any Native Prince or Chief in India, shall be enquired into in British India unless the Political Agent, if there be one, for the territory in which the offence is said to have been committed, certifies that, in his opinion, the charge ought to be enquired into in British India. It is admitted that the certificate of the Political Agent in Nepal was not obtained before the commencement of the inquiry by the committing Magistrate, although it was subsequently obtained. It appears to me that under the language of this section the obtaining of such certificate is a preliminary requisite to the holding of an inquiry into such a charge. The alleged offence having been committed without the limits of British India, the section forbids any inquiry until the certificate has been obtained. I think, therefore, that the commitment was illegal, and I declare it to be so and quash the commitment. It will be open, however, to the Magistrate to institute criminal proceedings de novo against the accused in accordance with law.

(2.) SEE in this connection the cases of Queen-Empress V/s. Ram Sundar (1896) I.L.R. 19 All. 109 and Queen-Empress V/s. Kathaperumal (1889) I.L.R. 13 Mad. 423 in which, however, there was no certificate at all in existence at the time of the commitment being made.--ED.