The main legal point established in the judgment is the importance of prompt preventive action by the Magistrate in cases under Section 145 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the need for the Magistrate to form his own judgment, and the critical date for determining actual possession.

Kinkhede, A J C—This is a reference made by the Sessions Judge, Akola, in connexion with an order made by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Akot and Balapur, in a. proceeding under Section 145, Criminal P.C., under the following circmstances.

2. Party No 1, Ganikhan, obtained possession through Court under a civil Court's de Tee, of the field in dispute described as S.N. 32 pot hissa 3, 9 acres 1 guntha of mauza Malrajura on 26th August 1926. On 14th September 1926 he moved the Magistrate to initiate proceedings under Section 145, Criminal P.C., alleging that Party No. 2 had wrongfully dispossessed him on 11th September 1926, i.e., he moved the Magistrate to take action, within three days of his eviction and 19 days of his entry into possession. He ran up to the Magistrate for redress, as he was afraid that there was imminent danger of a breach of the peace occurring. The Magistrate, if I may hazard a conjecture, was not perhaps satisfied that there was the likelihood of a breach of the peace as there was nothing before him beyond the mere assertion of Party No. 1, and he, therefore, thought fit to invite a police report by the end of the month. In doing so he sent the application itself in original for enquiry and report to the police. The police report thus called up, though ordered to be made by the end of September, was not made until 19th October 1926 by the head constable, who was deputed for the purpose by the Sub-Inspector, Station House Patur. The same was forwarded by the Sub-Inspector to the Circle Inspector, Balapur, on 20th October 1926, and he in his turn forwarded it to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Akola, who ordered the papers to be returned to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate under endorsement dated 27th October 1926, though the papers could thus reach the Magistrate's Court on 28th October 1926, they remained uncared for either with the Court Reader or the Magistrate himself until 12th November 1926.

3. There is nothing on the record to account for this delay or to explain away this lethargy on the part of both the police and the Magistrate. A word of explanation was certainly necessary to show why there was a default on the part of the police in submitting the report by the end of September as ordered, and the Magistrate was entitled to call upon the District Superintendent of Police through the District Magistrate, if necessary, to explain the cause of the delay and to request him to warn his subordinates to avoid such delays and defaults in future. The Magistrate who is himself a M.A. L.L.B. and presumably has had sufficient experience was expected to exercise greater degree of diligence in the discharge of his own duties as a Magistrate including the one of keeping the staff attached to his Court up to the mark, by taking proper care to see that things are done systematically and according to procedure and above all punctually as well. If the Magistrate had attached an order-sheet to the application and noted thereon the fact of the application having been made for initiating proceedings under Section 145, Criminal P.C., and that before passing a preliminary order he desired to call for a police report and that the application was forwarded in original for enquiry and report to the police, and fixed a date for the return of the application and the submission of report, and given notice of the date to the party applying, I daresay, that would have been something. In that case, there would have been some record before him to go upon, and the same would have been put up before him at the due date, and the parties also would have attended before him and moved him for further orders. Instead of this the Magistrate endorsed an order, dated 15th September 1926, on the petition itself, addressed to the Sub-Inspector of Police through the District Superintendent of Police, Akola, asking him to ''enquire and report by the end of this month.'' The practice of passing orders on the original petitions themse