L PATTABI CHETTY Vs. GOPALA CHETTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WE think that the District Judge's order is without jurisdiction.

(2.) HE had jurisdiction to interfere under Section 476-A of the Criminal P.C., and file a complaint only in two contingencies : (a) that the District Munsif had not made a complaint under Section 476; (b) that he had rejected an application to make a complaint. Contingency (b) does not apply obviously, As to contingency (a) the District Munsif had, no doubt, not made a complaint under Section 476, But when ha passed his sanction order he had no power or jurisdiction to make such a complaint which must be a complaint under the amended Section 476 since that section was not then in force. We cannot hold that Section 476-A was ever intended to apply to a case of a Court not invoking a power which it had never power to invoke. 2. The lower Court's order is, therefore, without jurisdiction and is, therefore, set aside. It is open to respondents to proceed, as they should have done, when the sanction order lapsed by the passing of the amended Criminal P.C., by moving the District Munsif's Court to make a complaint.