BALKRISHNA MURLIDHAR HADAP Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BALKRISHNA Murlidhar Hadap was convicted under Section 161, Penal Code, and sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500 by the Special Tribunal, Amraoti, in criminal Case No. 11 of 1945 on 8-10-1945,. Pending the filing of an appeal, he was released on bail on that date by the Tribunal under Section 426(2a), Criminal P.C. He filed an appeal in this Court on 17-10-1945 to set aside his conviction and sentence and he was allowed to remain on bail by Hemeon, J.

(2.) THE Special Tribunal, Amraoti, was constituted under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1943 (29 [xxix] of 1948), and the trial of the appellant was held in accordance with the provisions thereof. Under Section 7 of the Ordinance, as originally promulgated no appeal lay against any sentence of a Tribunal. The section was amended and a new section was substituted by the Criminal Law (1948-Amendment) Second Amending Ordinance, 1945 (22 [xxii] of 1945) which was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, on 4-7-1945. The complaint against the appellant was filed on 30-7-1945. Under the section asamended an appeal to this Court was competent-because the offence was alleged to have taken place at Tumsar Road within the local limits of the jurisdiction of this Court.

(3.) IN Ground No. 1 of the memorandum of appeal the appellant urged that prior sanction of the Governor-General in Council was necessary for his prosecution, that for want of such sanction the trial was vitiated and that consequently his conviction was illegal. This contention was not pressed by Dr. Kedar, the learned Counsel for the appellant. The contention has no force and is concluded by two decisions of the Federal Court in Hori Ram v. Emperor and H.T. Huntley v. Emperor The observations in the latter case at pages 268 and 269 may be quoted as decisive of the contention raised: Section 270(1) of the Constitution Act relates to proceedings instituted against a person in respect of any act done or purporting to be done in the execution of his duty as a servant of the Crown.