Judgment

SINHA, C.J.I. : These appeals have been heard together only in so far as they involve substantial questions of law as to the interpretation of the Constitution, with particular reference to cl. (3) of Art. 20. This larger Bench was constituted in order to re-examine some of the propositions of law laid down by this Court in the case of M. P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra, 1954 SCR 1077 : because when one of these cases was heard by five of us, we felt that some of the propositions therein laid down may have been too widely stated, and therefore, required to be restated with more particularity. We have not heard counsel for the parties on the merits of the orders passed by the Courts below, but have confined the discussions at the Bar, in so far as they had any bearing on the questions of law relating to the interpretation of cl. (3) of Art. 20 of the Constitution.

2. It is not necessary to state in any detail the facts of each of the cases now before us. We shall, therefore, state only so much of the facts as have occasioned calling in aid of the provisions of cl. (3) of Art. 20 of the Constitution. In the first case, namely, Criminal appeal 146 of 1958, the State of Bombay is th