Newsam, J.

1. This is an application to quash the committal of six persons to stand their trial at the Court of Sessions, West Godawari. Four of them have been committed on a charge of extortion by putting a person in fear of death (Section 386, Indian Penal Code) and all six of them on a charge of criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B).

2. The point taken before me is that under Section 196-A, Criminal Procedure Code, no Court shall take cognisance of the offence of criminal conspiracy where the object of the conspiracy is to commit a non-cognizable offence unless the previous sanction of the Local Government or of the District Magistrate has been obtained. The offence punishable by Section 386, Indian Penal Code, is (rather strangely) non-cognizable. Admittedly, no sanction to prosecute or to initiate these proceedings was obtained. Admittedly also this objection to the Courts jurisdiction was not taken in the lower Court, but has been made for the first time in this petition.

3. Now it has been held in Abdul Rahaman v. Emperor I.L.R (1935) 62 Cal. 749 that failure to comply strictly with Section 196-A, Criminal Procedure Code, is not a sufficient ground for quashing proceedings.