JUDGMENT

Kendall, J. - This is a Reference by the Sessions Judge of Meerut u/s 488, Criminal P.C., recommending that the order of Mr. Puech, Special Magistrate of the First Class of Meerut, rejecting the application of Mt. Tirbeni to be excused from personal attendance in his Court u/s 205, Criminal P.C., should be set aside. The facts appear to be that two ladies made cross-complaints against each other under Sections 323 and 452, Indian Penal Code, and both those ladies appeared in Court; but Mt. Tirbeni, who is the accused in one of the cases but who had not made any complaint, did not appear in Court. All the ladies belong to a class that observes parda, and the Magistrate's chief reason for refusing to excuse Mt. Tirbeni' a personal attendance was that the other ladies who were related to her, had appeared in Court; but, as the learned Sessions Judge has pointed out, they did so of their own free will. The matter appears to be a trivial one from the point of view of the administration of justice, and it is one that would, in the ordinary course, be left to the discretion of the Magistrate; but my attention has been drawn to a case in which a Judge of this Court did interfere in