Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- What is the effect of the declaration by the SC that the appointment of an Additional Sessions Judge was invalid on judgments pronounced by the Judge prior to such declaration is the question for consideration in these criminal appeals. The question may seem to be short and simple but it cannot be answered without enquiry and research. An answer, on first impression, may be a judgment by a judge who is not a judge is no judgment a simple, sophisticated answer. But it appears second thoughts are necessary. What is to happen to titles settled, declarations made, rules issued, injunctions and decrees granted and even executed? What is to happen to sentences imposed? Are convicted offenders to be set at liberty and to be tried again? Are acquitted accused to be arrested and tried again ? Public Policy is clearly involved. And, in the tangled web of human affairs, law must recognise some consequences as relevant, not an grounds of pure logic but for reasons of practical necessity. To clear the confusion and settle the chaos, judges have invented the de facto doctrine, which we shall presently examine. De facto doctrine is thus a doctrine of necessity and pu