1. This Criminal Revision Petition has been ordered to be referred to a Full Bench by reason of a large number of similar cases pending in which decisions of Magistrates throughout the Presidency would be vitiated if the recent decision of this Court in In re Marudamuthu Vannian (1922) 43 M.L.J. 402, was correctly decided.

2. The facts are that the accused were charged by the police in a warrant case for receiving stolen property before the Second Class Magistrate of Paramakudi. The procedure adopted by him was the following. Witnesses for the prosecution were examined. The accused being given the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses when their examination was "completed did not avail themselves of that opportunity. The accused were then questioned generally on the case for the purpose of enabling them to" explain the circumstances appearing from the evidence against them, and they stated that they would put in a written statement. The Magistrate then, under Section 254 of the Criminal Procedure Code, being of opinion that there was ground for presuming that the accused had committed an offence which is triable as a warrant case and which he was competent to try, framed i