Alfred Henry Lionel Leach, C.J.

1. This Full Bench has been constituted to decide a matter referred under Rule 2 of the Rules applying to this Court in its appellate jurisdiction by Burn and Stodart, JJ., sitting as a Bench dealing with criminal cases. The matter involves the important question whether this Court has the power to issue a writ of habeas corpus as known to the English Common Law or whether its powers are confined in this respect to those conferred by Section 491 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives authority to issue directions "of the nature of a habeas corpus. There are other questions involved in the reference and for their proper appreciation it is necessary to set out the course of events.

2. The respondents are the directors of the Travancore National and Quilon Bank, Limited, a company registered under the laws of the State of Travancore. A petition for the compulsory winding up of the company was recently granted by this Court and official liquidators have been appointed. On the night of the 20th October, 1938, the respondents were arrested in Madras in pursuance of extradition warrants issued under Section 7 of the Indian Extradition Act, 1903,