Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 – s.244 – In the year 2007, a verbal/physical altercation took place between the appellantcomplainant and his father on one side, with the respondents on the other – His father in the course thereof fell down and lost consciousness – Later, he died – No FIR was registered – In the year 2008, appellant-complainant sought direction before the Judicial Magistrate First Class u/s.156(3) CrPC which was accepted and the process as u/s.200 CrPC was initiated – The case came to be committed to the jurisdictional Court of Session – Respondents sought quashing of the complaint and summoning order – Meanwhile, the Sessions Court framed charges, only against respondent no.2 – Aggrieved, the complainant filed criminal revision – The High Court remanded the matter in dispute to the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Chandigarh to comply with the provisions of s.244 of CrPC – Correctness:
Held: It is settled that at this pre-trial stage, the Magistrate is required to perform acts in the nature of administrative work rather than judicial such as ensuring compliance with ss.207 and 208 CrPC, and committing the matter if it is exclusively triable by the Sessions Court – The Magistrate at the stage of ss.207 to 209 CrPC is forbidden, by express provision of s.319 CrPC, to apply his mind to the merits of the case and determine as to whether any accused needs to be added or subtracted to face trial before the Court of Session – Further, under CrPC, the only requirement from the Magistrate is to see whether the offence is exclusively triable by the Court of Sessions and in doing so, no evidence need be taken – The power of Magistrate is a ‘narrow inspection hole’ – The High Court proceeded with an erroneous reading of the law and the impugned judgment cannot be sustained – The remand to the Magistrate was incorrect in law. [Paras 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Ankit Gyan. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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