HAJI BAQRIDI Vs. KING-EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by the Sessions Judge of Benares with the recommendation to this Court that an order passed under Section 117, Clause (3), Criminal P.C., by a 1 Class Magistrate, be set aside as ultra vires.

(2.) Proceedings under Section 107, Criminal P.C., were pending before the City Magistrate, Benares, against several people. After the Magistrate had made an order under Section 112, Criminal P.C., attempts were being made by the Hindus and the Mahomedans concerned to settle the dispute between them amicably and the case was postponed from time to time, tout nothing seems to have been done, or at any rate nothing was achieved by these postponements. As time was passing, and as there were certain festivals which might have brought about a riot, the City Magistrate passed an order against five persons under Section 117, Clause (3), directing them to execute personal bonds with sureties in the sum of Rs. 500 each to keep the peace until the final disposal of the case. On the same date these five persons applied to the City Magistrate asking for a postponement of the case for one month to enable them to apply for a transfer of the case from the Court of the City Magistrate.

(3.) The learned Sessions Judge was of opinion that under the law the Court was bound to stop all proceedings in the case and any order passed after an application under Section 526, Criminal P.C., had been made, was ultra vires.