PUBLIC PROSECUTOR Vs. SADANANDA PATNAIK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts of this case so far as they are necessary to state them for the purposes of this appeal, are as follows:

(2.) One Sadananda Patnaik was convicted by the 1st class Magistrate of the Gumsoor Sub. Division, Ganjam, of an offence punishable under Section 161 I.P.C. On appeal the Sessions Judge of the Ganjam Session Division acquitted him. Against this acquittal the Public Prosecutor appeals on behalf of Government on the ground thai the Sessions Judge of the Ganjam Sessions Division had no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. The offence was committed at Baliguda which is in the Ganjam Agency tracts. The case was transferred by the Agent to and was tried by the 1st class Magistrate of the Gumsoor Sub. Division who had local Criminal jurisdication over certain Agency tracts as well as over certain non-Agency tracts. The argument for the appellant is that tha Agent transferred the case to the 1st class Magistrate for trial in his capacity as a, 1st class Magistrate of the Agency, not as a first class Magistrate of the non-agency portion of his Sub-Division and that an appeal lies from his decision as an Agency Magistrate to the agent as Sessions Judge of the Agency tracts but not to the Sessions Judge of the Ganjam Sessions Division.

(3.) We think that this contention must b;: upheld. By Section 3 of Act XXIV of 1839 the administration of civil and criminal Justice and the collection of revenue in certain specified tracts, (which for convenience may be called the Agency tracts), which were at that time included in the District (i. c, the revenue District) of Ganjam, were vested in the Collector of Ganjam and it was ordered that his powers in these matters should be exercised by him as agent to the Governor of Fort Saint George who was given power (Section 4) to make rules for the guidance of the Agent and his subordinate officers and also (Section 8) to alter th: limits of the Agency tracts.