TAKRU, J. :- The following question has come up before this Full Bench on a reference by Verma and Gupta, JJ.

"Whether a confession recorded by a Magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure after the police had completed its investigation and submitted a charge-sheet, but before the Magisterial enquiry has commenced, is inadmissible in evidence."

2. The reference was necessitated as in the view of those learned Judges the decision in Ram Singh v. State, 1958 All LJ 660 : (AIR 1959 All 518), and the cases on which it was based, required reconsideration.

3. The facts giving rise to this reference are not in dispute, and, in so far as they are material for our purposes, are as follows :

4. On the 8th of April 1964, the police submitted a charge-sheet against the appellant under Section 302 I.P.C. treating him as an absconder. The appellant was subsequently arrested at Malcla in West Bengal on the 3rd of May 1964, and his confession was recorded by a First Class Magistrate there on the 5th of May 1964. The enquiry before the committing Court was registered on the 25th of May 1964, which, for the purposes of this case, I shall assume as the date of the commenceme