The question of law that is required to be considered in these petitions is as to whether the remand of an accused under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 comes to an end as soon as a charge-sheet is filed and if there is delay in the Magistrate taking cognizance of the offence, whether the intervening period from the time the charge-sheet is placed until the cognizance is taken amounts to illegal detention.

2. These four petitions have been filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for grant of bail. During arguments in Criminal Petition No. 27 of 2005 one of the contentions raised was that as held by the learned Single Judge of this Court (Justice Mrs. Manjula Chellur) in Devindrappa and Another v State of Karnataka 1, once the charge-sheet is filed, period of remand under Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure comes to an end and in the absence of specific order of remand under Section 309 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the detention of the accused is custody from the date of charge-sheet till date was illegal. Relying on an earlier decision of this Court in Balappa Karnal v State of Karnataka 1, it was urged that in view of inte