S.S.Sandhawalia, J.

1. The passage of time has rendered somewhat academic the otherwise significant question formulated in the terms following by the referring Division Bench:

Whether the word application in Clause (a) of Sub-section (2) of Sec. 484 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 includes a petition of complaint?

2. What seems to be equally on the anvil is the correctness of the Division Bench view in Mahanth Barinar Das and Ors. V/s. The State of Bihar, 1975 0 BBCJ 364 which indeed has necessitated this reference to the larger Bench.

3. Somewhat apologetically it has to be mentioned that this pending proceeding arises from an incident of nearly 16 years ago. Way back in July 1968 one Asharfi Lal of village Mohammadpur lodged information about the body of Arbind Kumar, a boy of 9 years, which was said to have been found in a maize field in the vicinity of police station Mohiuddinagar. The house of the deceased, who was admittedly the son of the complainant Dharnidhar Sahu, was in the close vicinity of the said police station. Asharfi Lal Sah, above-mentioned, had cautiously stated that the deceased boy was missing from his house from 7 P M. on the preceding day, hav