EMPEROR Vs. MARIA BASAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by the District Magistrate of Dharwar recommending that the proceedings now pending against the present accused in the Court of the First Class Magistrate of Gadag on a charge of murder under Section 302 should be quashed on the ground of the illegality of the proceedings.

(2.) The accused was admittedly an approver in a murder case in which he was granded a full pardon under Section 337 of the criminal Procedure Code. That being so, that pardon was a bar to any criminal proceedings being taken against him in respect of his complicity in the murder subject to any other provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. Those other provisions will be found in Section 339 which provides that where such a pardon has been tendered, and the Public Prosecutor certifies that in, his opinion any person who has accepted such tender has not complied with the condition on which the tender was made, such person may be tried for the offence, in respect of which the pardon was so tendered.

(3.) Admittedly here the Public Prosecutor has given no such certificate, but notwithstanding that the learned Sessions Judge of Dharwar at the termination of the trial directed that the approver be put before a Magistrate, and that the Public Prosecutor be authorised to file a complaint against the approver and he ordered that the approver should be discharged and re-arrested and remanded to prison and should be produced before a Magistrate when called upon.