This batch of revision cases raises a point of considerable importance in the day-to-day administration of justice. It relates to announcing sentence before judgment which is the final decision of the Court intimated to the parties and the world at large by formal pronouncement of delivery in open Court by the trial Judge and signing and dating it simultaneously and thereby terminating the criminal proceedings finally (Halsbury 2nd Edition, Vol. 9), pages 260-264: Emperor v. Maheswara Kondayya1, Madho Singh v. Emperor2, Kuppuswami Rao v. The King3, Hori Ram Singh v. Emperor4, Surya Rao v. Sathiraju5, Surendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh6, Basanta Kumar Pal v. Kamini Mohan Pal7.

One Sri K. Ramanujam, the Sub-Magistrate of Rasipuram, has convicted the accused in C.C. Nos. 2101, 2113, 2236 and 2257 of 1959 under section 4(1)(j) of the Madras Prohibition Act. In all these cases the accused has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months and to pay a fine of Rs. 5. It has been proved beyond doubt and the Magistrate himself admits it, that in none of these cases he wrote judgments and pronounced them and signed and dated them in open Court as required by sections 3