S.S.SANDHWALIA and S.N.JHA JJ.

1. Can a Magistrate, even after accepting the final report filed by the police, still take cognizance of an offence upon a complaint or a protest petition on the same or similar allegations of fact-s the somewhat tangled common question of law in this set of four cases necessitating this reference to the Division Bench.

2. As is manifest, the issue aforesaid being pristinely legal, the facts would pale into relative insignificance. These may, therefore, be noticed with relative brevity from Criminal Miscellaneous No. 4865 of 1980Munilal Thakur and others V/s. Nawal Kishote Thakur and another. A first information report alleging offences under Sections 448, 323 and 436 of the Indian Penal Code was recorded against the petitioners in police station Sikti. After investigation, the police submitted a final report in the court of the Magistrate on the 27th of March, 1979 with an endorsement that the case was false. It is, however, common ground that much earlier a protest petition had been filed by the informant complaint on the 8th of December, 1978 in the court. After the receipt of the final report, the learned Magistrate accepted the same on th