M G DESAI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application by M.G. Desai, who is at present undergoing his trial in Meerut in the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, for exemption from attendance at the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge for ten days in order that he may see his mother in Bombay, who is ill. The application and the order passed thereon by the Additional Sessions Judge show that in this case the evidence is now completed and arguments have been addressed to the Court by the counsel representing the applicant. He therefore asks us to consider that his presence in Court is no longer essential. We may assume that the arguments in the case will not be completed in ten days time and that, if we saw our way to grant this application, there would be no reason to fear that the applicant, who is on bail, would not return to the Court before judgment is pronounced. In his order the Additional Sessions Judge has pointed out that exemption can only be granted under Section 540-A, Criminal P.C., and he himself has suggested that the applicant should make the reference to this Court. THIS Court will only act on its inherent powers where those powers can be exercised without conflict with the existing law. Section 540-A lays down that, where there are two or more accused and any one or more of them is or are incapable of remaining before the Court, the Judge may dispense with the attendance of such accused person and proceed with the trial. However liberal an interpretation we might be prepared to place upon the words "incapable of remaining before the Court," we cannot make them include the case of a person who is in no way incapacitated from attending the Court but wishes to go to a remote place for private reasons. THIS is one of those cases which may act hardly on a particular person; but in our opinion it would create a most dangerous precedent to grant exemption to the applicant for reasons which are not covered by Section 540-A, Criminal P.C. We accordingly reject the) application.