CHANDO GANGOTA Vs. MADAN MANDAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application against the order of the Additional Sessions Judge of Bhagalpur withdrawing the complaint filed by the Assistant Sessions Judge of Madhipura against the opposite party for their prosecution under Section 211, Indian Penal Code. It would appear that the opposite party had brought a case of dacoity and the Assistant Sessions Judge was of the opinion that he had brought a false case and accordingly he should be prosecuted. The Additional Sessions Judge did not read the judgment of the Assistant Sessions Judge to mean anything of the kind and he quoted passages from it to indicate that it was more a case of giving the accused in the dacoity the benefit of the doubt.

(2.) In revision it is not for me to go into the merits of the decisions of the Additional Sessions Judge on the facts. Mr. Sarjoo Prasad appearing for the petitioners urged that in law the Additional Sessions Judge ought not to have heard the appeal under Section 476B, Criminal P.C., as no appeal lay to him and his order withdrawing the complaint was without jurisdiction. He contended that the Additional Sessions Judge was not the Court to whom appeals ordinarily lie from a sentence passed by an Assistant Sessions Judge. He pointed out that the Assistant Sessions Judge was a member of the Court of Session as much as the Sessions Judge himself or the Additional Sessions Judge and accordingly the Court to which an appeal ordinarily lay was the High Court to whom the Court of Session was subordinate. Section 476B, which provides for an appeal against an order passed under Section 476, distinctly states the Court to which an appeal lies from an order passed under Section 476. It states that: Any person on whose application any Civil, Revenue or Criminal Court has refused to make a complaint under Section 476 or Section 476A, or against whom such a complaint has been made, may appeal to the Court to which such former Court is subordinate within the meaning of Section 195, Sub- Section (8) and the superior Court may thereupon, after notice to the parties concerned, direct the withdrawal of the complaint or....

(3.) According to this Section then one has to refer to Section 195, Sub-section (3) to find out which is the Court to which an appeal lies from the Assistant Sessions Judge. Section 195(3) states: For the purposes of this Section, a Court shall be deemed to be subordinate to the Court to which appeals ordinarily lie from the appealable decrees or sentences of such former Court.... There is also a proviso (a) to this Sub-section which runs as follows: Where appeals lie to more than one Court, the appellate Court of inferior jurisdiction shall be the Court to which such Court shall be deemed to be subordinate.