JUDGMENT

Simpson, A J C - This is an application for transfer of a criminal case. The complainant is Zahur Ahmad, Karinda of M. Ghulam Husain, an Honorary Magistrate in Bahraich. The complaint was filed some time in April 1925 and it came up for hearing on the 23rd April, but was then postponed, because all the prosecution witnesses were not present. It came up again on the 7th May, and this time it was postponed at the request of the pleader for the accused. It does not appear on what grounds this postponement took place. In the application two grounds are given for the transfer. One in paragraph 6 is, that M. Ghulam Husain is an intimate friend of the trying Magistrate. The trying Magistrate is Syed Muhammad Abbas Saheb, the Sub-Divisional Officer. There is no affidavit in support of this allegation. It is denied by the Magistrate and has consequently been abandoned by counsel before me. The other reason is that the applicant cannot secure the services of any of the senior members of the Bahraich Bar. This statement is supported by an affidavit, in which it is stated that the declarant with the accused went to almost each and every vakil and pleader of the Bahraich Bar, with the papers relating to the case, and every one declined to take the case on some excuse or other. It is also stated that three of the eminent criminal practitioners in Bahraich have been engaged on behalf of the other side, and that the only person available for the applicant is a junior Civil Court practitioner. There is a counter affidavit in which this is denied, but no names are given, either in the affidavit, or by counsel before me, of any practitioner in Bahraich, who is ordinarily employed in criminal cases, who is willing to act for the applicant. I accept the statement in the affidavit, and I consider that it is a sufficient reason for transfer. I wish also to express my concurrence with the views of the then Judicial Commissioner, in Allahabad Bank Ltd., Fyzabad v. Thakur Bakhsh Singh A.I.R. 1924 Oudh 372, that a lawyer has no right to reject a brief offered to him on payment of fee agreed upon between the parties, on grounds of partisanship for a party to the litigation. If the affidavit before me expresses the facts, the facts are discreditable to the Bahraich Bar. I transfer the case to the Court of the District Magistrate of Gonda. The District Magistrate will either try the case himself or will transfer it to any competent Court in the Gonda district.