SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
V.R. KRISHNA IYER, V.D. TULZAPURKAR AND R.S. PATHAK, JJ.
Joginder Singh and another, Appellants
Versus
State of Punjab and another, Respondents.
Criminal Appeal No. 501 of 1977, D/- 16-11-1978.
Advocates appeared
Mr. R. P. Sharma, Advocate, for Appellants; Mr. Hardev Singh, Advocate, for Respondents.
Indian Penal Code, 1860 – Section 34 - Charge sheet - Injuries - Additional Sessions Judge negative contention and presumably exercising his powers Code of Criminal Procedure passed an order on Oct directing that attendance of two appellants be procured and further directing that they should stand their trial together with three accused - Feeling aggrieved by order appellants filed Criminal Revision Application to High Court dismissed Provisional Application - Appellants have come up in appeal to this Court by special leave – Held, It will thus appear clear that Code when case is committed to Court of Session in respect of an offence Court of Session takes cognizance offence and not of accused and once Sessions Court is properly seized of case as result of committal order against some accused power can come into play and such Court can add any person not an accused before it as an accused and direct him to be tried along with other accused for offence which such added accused appears to have committed from evidence recorded at trial - Looking at provision from this angle there would be no question of reading subject or subordinate - As regards contention that phrase any person not being accused occurring in excludes from its operation an accused who has been released by police Code and has been shown in column– Charge sheet contention has merely to be stated to be rejected - Expression clearly covers any person who is not being tried already by Court and very purpose of enacting such provision like Sec clearly shows that even persons who have been dropped by police during investigation but against whom evidence showing their involvement in offence comes before Criminal Court are included in said expression - Decision of Andhra Pradesh High Court in supra relied upon by appellants has erroneously regarded change in phraseology made in Sections current Code as inconsequential and has further failed to note impact of deeming provision introduced for first time - That decision must be erroneous - Appeal dismissed
Judgment
TULZAPURKAR, J.:- This appeal by special leave is directed against the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Criminal Revn. No. 909 of 1977, whereby the High Court confirmed the order passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana on Oct. 19, 1977 directing that the attendance of the two appellants (Joginder Singh and Ram Singh) be procured and they be ordered to stand trial together with three accused who had been committed to his Court to stand their trial for offences under Sections 452, 308 and 323 each read with S. 34, I. P. C.
2. The facts giving rise to the appeal may be stated thus : At the instance of one Mohinder Singh a criminal case was registered at Police Station Dakha against Joginder Singh, Ram Singh (the two appellants), Bhan Singh, Darshan Singh and Ranjit Singh on the allegation that each one armed with a "Toki" had entered his house on April 30, 1977 at 10.00 a.m. and had caused a number of injuries to Ajaib Singh and Bir Singh who were present in the house with the respective weapons. It was further alleged by Mohinder Singh that Darshan Singh opened the attack with "Toki" blow from reverse side on Ajaib Singhs head whereas Ram Singh had dealt him blows with the butt of his gun and when Bir Singh tried to rescue Ajaib Singh, Joginder Singh and Ranjit Singh gave blows on his head and that on medical examination Ajaib Singh was found to have four injuries by blunt weapons and Bir Singh was found to have suffered one injury with a blunt weapon. During the investigation the police found Joginder Singh and Ram Singh (the appellants) to be innocent and, therefore a charge-sheet was submitted by the police only against the remaining three accused Bhan Singh, Darshan Singh and Ranjit Singh. The learned Magistrate who held a preliminary inquiry committed the three accused Bhan Singh, Darshan Singh and Ranjit Singh to the Sessions Court and the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, framed charges against the three accused for offences under Ss. 452/308/323 read with Section 34 I. P. C. but at the trial evidence of Mohinder Singh and Ajaib Singh was recorded during the course of which both of them implicated Joginder Singh and Ram Singh in the incident. Thereupon at the instance of Mohinder Singh, the Public Prosecutor moved an application before the learned Additional Sessions Judge for summoning and trying Joginder Singh and Ram Singh along with the three accused, who were already facing their trial. The application was opposed by the counsel for the accused principally on the ground that the Sessions Judge had no jurisdiction or power to summon the two appellants and direct them to be made accused to stand their trial along with three accused because they had neither been charge-sheeted nor committed and the Sessions Court had no jurisdiction or power directly to take cognizance against them in respect of any offences said to have been committed by them. The learned Additional Sessions Judge negatived the said contention and presumably exercising his powers under S. 319 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 passed an order on Oct. 19, 1977 directing that the attendance of the two appellants be procured and further directing that they should stand their trial together with the three accused. Feeling aggrieved by this order the appellants filed a Criminal Revision Application No. 909/1977 to the High Court but the High Court dismissed the Revisional Application on Nov. 24, 1977. The appellants have come up in appeal to this Court by special leave.
3. Counsel for the appellants raised two contentions in support of the appeal. In the first place relying upon Ss. 193 and 209 of the Code of Criminal Procedure counsel contended that there was a bar to the Court of Session taking cognizance of any offence as a Court of original jurisdiction unless the appellants were committed to it by a Magistrate under the Code and it was pointed out that admittedly in the instant case though the F.I.R. had inv
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