1. The question of law raised in the first 5 references and in the next revision petition is practically the same and hence all of them were heard together. They are also disposed of by the present common order.

2. Crl. Reference No. 21/57 is by the Session Judge at Alleppey and he has recommended under S.438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that the committal order which is the basis of Sessions Case No. 32/56 on the file of his court may be quashed since it is an illegal order passed in violation of the mandatory provisions contained in clause (4) of S.207-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The ground of illegality is stated to be that the Magistrate who committed the accused to stand their trial in the Sessions Court, has passed the order of committal without examining all the witnesses mentioned in the charge-sheet filed by the police as witnesses to the actual commission of the alleged offence. In Crl. Ref. No. 22/57 also a similar recommendation has been made by the same judge in respect of the committal order which is the basis of Sessions Case No. 42/57 on the file of the same court. There also the defect pointed out is that before passing the committal order,