Power of Magistrate to issue search warrant.

The petitioner is the trustee (appointed by the Hindu Religious Endowments Board) of the Badrakaliammal Temple in Mecheri, Omalur Taluk, Salem District. Under section 87(c) of the Hindu Religious Endowments Act he made an application to the District Magistrate, Salem, to direct the respondent to deliver possession to the petitioner of the temple properties which are set out in the list attached to the certificate. After hearing both parties, the District Magistrate directed the respondent to hand over the articles mentioned in the list to the petitioner herein. Against this order the respondent filed a revision case (Cr.R.C. No. 676 of 1954) but the same was dismissed by this Court. After this, the petitioner went to take delivery of possession of these articles with the aid of the Police. But the police finding it difficult to identify the jewels applied to the District Magistrate for the issue of a search warrant so as to enable them to seize the jewels, if necessary, by force. Notice of this application by the Police was given to the other side. The respondent appeared before the District Magistrate and raised objections as to the issue of a warrant on the ground that the District Magistrate had no jurisdiction to issue such a warrant. The District Magistrate holding that section g6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will not in terms apply to the proceedings in question, held that it was not competent for him to issue such a search warrant. The result was that though the District Magistrate directed delivery of the properties he found himself unable to enforce his own order. The question is whether the District Magistrate has no power to enforce an order which he himself had passed earlier.

The learned advocate who appears for the petitioner contends that the Court has ample powers to enforce its own order. In support of his contention he relied on the principles laid down by the House of Lords in National Telephone Company, Limited v. Postmaster-General1, which have been adopted and followed by several decisions of our High Court. In the above decision Viscount Haldane, L.C. observed as follows:

"When a question is stated to be referred to an established Court without more, it, in my opinion, imports that the ordinary incidents of the procedure of that Court are to attach......"

In the same judgment, Lord Atkinson, dealing with this question at page 555 says:

"It is simply the question of extending the jurisdiction of an existing Court of law, with all its incidents including a right of appeal, to a new matter closely resembling in character those matters over which it has already jurisdiction as a Court of law."

Lord Shaw who was also one of the Judges in the above case observes at page 557:

".....the whole of the statutory consequences of procedure before such a Court ensue."

The observations of Lord Moulton and Lord Parker in the same case are also to the same effect, namely, when by a statute, matters are referred to the determination of a Court with no further provision, the necessary implication is that the Court will determine the matters as a Court. Its jurisdiction is enlarged but all the incidents of such jurisdiction remain the same.

The above observations of their Lordships of the House of Lords in the above case have been adopted and followed by this Court in Guruvammal v. Arumuga Padayachi2. In dealing with the powers of the District Court in respect of application under the former section 78 of the repealed Hindu Religious Endowments Act, Curgenven, J., observes as follows:

"When a duty of a particular character is cast upon an established Court, it imports in the words of Lord Haldane, L.C., in National Telephone Company, Ltd. v. Postmaster-General1, that the ordinary incidents of the procedure of that Court are to attach’."

In Narayana Iyengar v. Desikachariar3, a Bench of this Court consisting of the then Chief Justice and Bardswell, J., dealing with a similar application under section 78 of the Repealed Act h