Sections 195 to 199, Criminal P. C. only deal with the requisites for the prosecution of certain specified offences and that the provisions of those sections must be limited to prosecutions for the offence actually indicated.

( 1 ) THIS is a reference made to a Full Bench by a Division Bench in a criminal matter.

( 2 ) ONE Mokshoda Dassi, mother of Dhirendra Nath Bera, who was the complainant, had been ill for sometime and while their son was away from home on 3-9-1949 she died. On his return home late in the evening Dhirendra Nath Bera found that his mother had died and with the aid of his friends and neighbours he took the dead body to the Panshilla Hindu cremation ground and placed the body on a funeral pyre which was then lighted. It appears that the accused Nurul Huda had lodged an information at the Shyampore Police Station in which it was alleged that the petitioner had beaten or throttled his mother to death. The accused opposite parties Nurul Huda, Basiral Huq, Sanwaral Huq, Jahet Rahaman, and Dr. Niamutulla--accompanied by a Sub-Inspector of the Shyampore Police Station--hurried to the cremation ground and found that the funeral pyre had been lighted. A complaint was again made to the Sub-Inspector that the deceased had been done to death and at the instance of the accused opposite parties the body was removed from the funeral pyre and taken to the morgue. A postmortem examination, however, revealed that there were no signs of injury on the body and that the deceased died a natural death. Later the final report of the police was to the effect that the information lodged was false.

( 3 ) THE petitioner filed a complaint in the Court of a Magistrate at Uluberia charging the accused opposite parties with offences under Sections 297 and 500, Penal Code. The accused were tried by the learned Magistrate and were found guilty on both charges. Each was convicted under Section 297, Penal Code, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three months. Each was also convicted under Section 500, Penal Code and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 100 and in default of payment, to suffer simple imprisonment for two months. Out of the fines, if realised, the sum of Rs. 300 was to be paid to the complainant Dhirendra Nath Bera as compensation.

( 4 ) THE convicted persons appealed to the Court of the learned Ses. J. of Howrah and in that Court it was argued on their behalf that the accused could not be convicted of either of the offences because the provisions of Section 195, Criminal P. C. , had not been complied with. It was contended that the complaint filed by the complainant disclosed an offence under Section 182, Penal Code and possibly under Section 211 of the Code. That being so it was urged that no prosecution could be instituted except on the complaint in writing of a public servant or except on the complaint of the Court concerned as required by Section 195 (1) (a) and (b ). The learned Ses. J. relied on a recent case of this Court and upheld the contention put forward on behalf of the accused persons. He accordingly allowed the appeal, set aside their convictions and sentences and acquitted them.

( 5 ) THE complainant then preferred a petition in revision to this Court and the petition in due course came before a Division Bench. The Bench were of opinion that the accused could properly be tried on both the charges without a complaint being made by a public officer or a Court. However, the Bench found that there were conflicting authorities of this Court and therefore they had no alternative but to refer the case to a Full Bench. The question which the Bench formulated for the answer of the Full Bench was in these terms :"if the facts alleged in a petition of complaint, or in a report from the police or in an information received by the Magistrate, on which a Magistrate can ordinarily take cognizance of an offence under Section 190, Criminal P. C. , disclose an offence of which cognizance cannot be taken by the Magistrate because of the special provisions of Section 195 or 196 or 196a or 197 or 199, Criminal P. C. , is the Magistrate also debarred because of this from taking cognizance of other offences disclosed by the facts alle