Faizanitddin, J. --1.This Criminal Appeal has been placed before this Full Bench on a reference made by a Division Bench of this Court (Gwalior Bench) comprising of Dr. T.N. Singh and S.K. Dubey, JJ; on the controversy which surfaced on account of an earlier Division Bench dicision of this Court (mainseat) rendered in State of M.P. v. Chandrahas, 1991 MPLJ 779 = 1991(11) MPWN 99 and a decision of the Apex Court in Shahzad Hasan Khan v. Ishtiaq Hasan Khan. AIR 1987 SC 1613 = 1987(11) MPWN 186 on the question of disposal of successive bail applications, by the same Judge or Bench as the case may be which according to the referring Division Bench are conflicting to the decisions requiring determination of the point in controversy by a larger Bench as the referring Bench did not agree with the view expressed by the Division Bench of this Court in Chandrahas (supra).

2. The Division Bench making a reference has not precisely put the controversy in the form of a question to be resolved by this Full Bench, however, this controversy would be clear from the facts as they emerge from the order of reference and material on record which we are stating hereinafter.

3. In Sessions Trial No.127 of 1983 decided on 3rd September, 1984, the Sessions Judge, Gwalior, convicted the appellant under section 302 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The appellant challenged him conviction and sentence before the High Court, Gwalior, by preferring Criminal Appeal under section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Besides the application dated 21st October, 1991 (I.A. No. IV), there are several applications on record dated 6th April, 1985; 13th October, 1987 and 8th December, 1987, but it is not clear whether they were disposed of and if so, by which Bench. It appears that some applications of the appellant for suspension of sentence were considered by the referring Bench comprising of Dr. T.N. Singh and S.K. Dubey, JJ; on 6th July, 1989, which was rejected with the direction that the appeal itself be listed for hearing in the month of September, 1989, but the appeal could not be so listed nor heard in September 1989. The appellant, therefore, made another application dated Zist October, 1991 (I.A. No. IV) for suspension of sentence which came up for consideration before the same Division Bench comprising of Dr. T.N. Singh and S.K. Dubey, JJ. During the course of arguments, Shri R.K. Sharma learned counsel appearing for the complainant, placing his reliance on the Division Bench decision of this Court, in the case of Chandrahas (supra) raised an objection that since the Division Bench was only sitting as a Special Bench, the bail application (I.A. No. IV) could not be heard and considered by it but according to the view expressed in Chandrahas (supra), it can be heard and decided only by Regular Division Bench. Learned Judge of the referring Division Bench expressed disagreement with the view taken by a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Chandrahas (supra) as according to them it has the effect of nullifying the decision rendered by another Division Bench of this Court in Munna Singh v. State of M.P. 1989 MPLJ 414=1989 JLJ 350 and also found it to be in conflict with the view taken by the Supreme Court in Shahzad Hasan Khan (supra) and, therefore, this reference to the larger Bench to resolve the question of disposal of successive bail application so that a consistent and indiscriminative practice be followed at all the Bench of this Court in that behalf.

4. When this reference was placed before this Bench, we issued S.P.C. twice to Shri J.P. Gupta' and Shri R.K. Sharma learned counsel appearing for the appellant and complainant respectively in this Criminal Appeal at Gwalior Bench, but they did not appear. We, therefore, requested Shri Surendra Singh, a Senior Counsel of this Court, to act as amicus curiae to assist the Court, who readily accepted and rendered his valuable assistance for which we are thankful to him.