JUDGMENT

Azmi LP (delivering the judgment of the majority):

The appellant was convicted together with three others of having committed an offence under s. 4(i)(c) of the Sedition Act 1948 (Revised - 1969) punishable under s. 4(1) of the said Act. He has appealed to this Court against both his conviction and sentence.

He was originally charged before the president of the sessions Court but on 16 March 1971 he applied to a Judge under s. 417 of the Criminal Procedure Code for the transfer of his trial to the High Court. Abdul Hamid J made the order prayed for Pursuant to that order of transfer the appellant was brought before the High Court on 3 May 1971 and tried, not by Abdul Hamid J himself, but by another Judge, Raja Azlan Shah J, by whom he was duly convicted and sentenced.

The appeal raises a number of grounds, in the forefront of which is the appellant's contention that the trial was a nullity. With the agreement of Counsel on both sides we decided to hear full argument first on this preliminary point, since the question of jurisdiction goes to the root of the whole appeal. The appellant's submission is that-

(1) his trial was a nullity, rendering his conviction null and vo