1. This is a reference made by the learned Sessions Judge of Trivandrum under S.438, Criminal Procedure Code, recommending to this court that the order made by the learned Second Class Magistrate of Neyyattinkara, in P.E. No. 8 of 1955 on his file, committing the two accused persons in that case for trial before the court of Sessions for commission of offences punishable under S.302 and 341, 201 and 34 I.P.C., should be quashed on account of the learned Magistrate's failure to comply with the provisions in sub-s. 4 of S.207-A, Criminal Procedure Code. The case was instituted on a police report and with reference to cases triable by the court of Sessions or High Court when the initiation of the proceeding is by such a report, S.207-A, introduced into the Code by S.29 of the Amendment Act XXVI of 1955, provides a more simplified form of procedure than before. Sub-s. (4), with which alone we are concerned here, is in these terms:

"The Magistrate shall then proceed to take the evidence of such persons, if any, as may be produced by the prosecution as witnesses to the actual commission of the offence alleged; and if the Magistrate is of opinion that it is necessary in the int