JUDGMENT

RAY, J.:— Special leave granted. Heard learned counsel for the parties.

2. The prosecution case, in short, is that to create fear and terror, to commit murder and to aggravate tense situation some persons hatched a conspiracy to massacre the general public by placing transistor bombs at public places and also by placing them in public transports as trains, buses etc. Many explosions took place in May, 1985 in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh in consequence whereof many persons were killed in Delhi and some places in Uttar Pradesh. Several cases were registered in different police stations of Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Khekra etc. in Delhi. F.I.R. No. 238 of 1985 was registered i.e. State versus Kartar Singh Narang etc. wherein all the accused persons named therein were arrested except one Gurdeep Singh Sehgal who was declared as a proclaimed offender. The accused Jagjit Singh and Gurvinder Singh turned approvers and they were granted pardon under S. 306 Criminal P.C. 1973. They were examined as P.W. 1 and P.W. 2 in the committal case proceeding in the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on December 24, 1985. Both these approvers resiled from their statements in the Court of the Committing Magistrate. The accused persons were committed to the Court of Session to stand their trial for offences under Ss. 121, 121A, 153, 153A, 302 and 307 I.P.C. and Ss. 3, 5 and 6 of Explosives Substances Act.

3. On February 27, 1986, Surjit Kaur, another accused in the Transistor Bomb Case, against whom cases were pending in the Meerut, Ghaziabad and Aligarh Districts of U.P., moved an application under S. 406 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before this Court for transfer of criminal case pending in the Court of Meerut to a Court in Delhi. This Court after hearing Counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh has directed that criminal cases referred to at Serial Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 in paragraph 2 of the transfer petition stand transferred to the Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi and shall be tried along with the case instituted in the Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi arising out of F.I.R. No. 238 of 1985 of Police Station, Patel Nagar, New Delhi. When the matter was taken up in the Court of Session, the respondent, Jagjit Singh, the approver moved an application that he cannot be examined as a witness as he had not accepted the pardon and did not support the prosecution version and he was forced to make a wrong statement by the police before the Metropolitan Magistrate. The application was rejected by the Trial Judge after hearing the arguments of the parties on March 1, 1986.

4. Against this order, a Criminal Revision Petition No. 92 of 1986 was filed by the respondent, Jagjit Singh in the High Court at Delhi. This application was heard by Jagdish Chandra, J. who dismissed the petition on August 12, 1986 holding that the mandate of the law requiring that the approver shall be examined both before the Committing Magistrate as well as during trial as a witness, is binding not only on the trial Court and the prosecution but also on the approver as well.

5. Thereafter, one of the accused persons who was a proclaimed offender was arrested and a supplementary challan was filed in the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi. The respondent, Jagjit Singh was sought to be examined as an approver by the prosecution, in the said supplementary committal proceeding in FIR No. 238 of 1985. The respondent objected to his being summoned as an approver on the ground inter alia that he cannot be examined as a witness in a case though he is figuring as an accused person in other five cases on the same facts and circumstances which are being jointly tried. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi dismissed the application by his order dated October 6, 1986. Against this order the respondent, Jagjit Singh filed Criminal Revision Petition No. 221 of 1986. M. K. Chawla, J. after hearing the parties allowed the Revision Petition