In Re: Surrinder Singh

P.D. Sharma, J.—The learned Sessions Judge of Delhi by his order dated 10th April, 1964, transferred the case pending against Surrinder Singh alias Chhida petitioner u/s 302, Indian Penal Code, from the Court of Shrimati Kaushalya Pahwa, Lady Magistrate, working as Children''s Court under the Children Act No. 60 of 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to the Court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi. Surrinder Singh petitioner has come up in revision to this Court for setting aside the above order on the ground that the learned Sessions Judge had no jurisdiction to entertain the transfer application and to pass any order thereon.

There is no dispute about the fact that the learned Additional Sessions Judge, in whose Court the case has been transferred, can proceed in the matter under the Act as provided in sub-section (3) of section 7 of the Act. The learned Sessions Judge has transferred the case in exercise of his powers u/s 528(1C) of the Code of Criminal Procedure which reprovides:

Any Sessions Judge, on an application made to him in this behalf, may, if he is of the opinion that it is expedient for the ends of justice, order that any particular case be transferred from one Criminal Court to another Criminal Court in the same sessions division.

Again, Criminal Court his been defined in section 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure:

Besides the High Courts and the Courts constituted under any law other than this Code for the time being in force, there shall be five classes of Criminal Courts in India, namely:

(I) Courts of Session;

(II) Presidency Magistrates;

(III) Magistrates of the first class;

(IV) Magistrates of the second class;

(V) Magistrates of the third class;

It shows that the Courts constituted under any law other than the Code of Criminal Procedure for the time being in force are also Criminal Courts and so the Children''s Court established under the provisions of the Act is a Criminal Court. My view finds support from sub-section (2) of section 5 of Act which runs as under:

A Children''s Court shall consist of such number of magistrates forming a Bench as the Administrator thinks fit to appoint, of whom one shall be designated as the senior magistrate and not less than one shall be a woman; and every such Bench shall have the powers conferred by the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898. on a magistrate on the first class.

The enquiry pending before the Children''s Court was a case as is understood in the Code of Criminal Procedure. It cannot, therefore, be said with any show of reason that the learned Sessions Judge could not have transferred the case against the petitioner u/s 528(IC) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The revision petition is without any merit and is thus dismissed.