1. Leave granted.

2. A strange motion has been made before the High Court of Orissa by four persons who are strangers to a criminal case for direction to a Magistrate to record their statements under S.164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short 'the Code'). The High Court which initially issued such a direction later resiled there from and revoked the order on a second thought and mulcted the aforesaid four persons with compensatory costs. They filed this appeal by special leave.

3. The backdrop of the above order can be summarised thus: In an incident which happened on 12.8.1997 at Janumi Village (Ganjam District, Orissa) one Balaram Mohanty and his son sustained injuries and later the said Mohanty succumbed to the injuries. F.I.R. was registered with Purusottampur Police Station on the information supplied by Bhagaban Mohanty, brother of the deceased. One Jagadish Murty and three others were arrayed as accused in the F.I.R. and investigation was commenced thereon. On completion of the investigation final report was laid by the police before the Magistrate against the said accused persons. According to the present four appellants, though they were interrogated by