Giridhar Malaviya, J. - (1.) TODAY along with this appeal, there are listed for hearing four more criminal appeals of the year 1979 and 10 more Criminal Appeals of the year 1980. It is apparent that these appeals being more than 16 or 17 years old, the incident in question had taken place even earlier. All these appeals are to be disposed of by a single Judge of the High Court.
(2.) ALLAHABAD High Court Rules, inter alia, deal with the question of jurisdiction of Judges sitting alone or in Benches. The relevant portion of Rule 2 of Chapter v. reads as follows: 2. Jurisdiction of a single Judge. - -Except as provided in these Rules or other law, the following cases shall be heard and disposed of by a Judge sitting alone, namely - (i) ... (ii) ... (iii) ... (iv) ... (v) .... (vi) ... (vii) a criminal appeal, application or reference except - (a) an appeal or reference in a case in which a sentence of death or imprisonment for life has been passed; (b) an appeal under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 from an order of acquittal; (c) deleted; (d) a case in which notice has been issued under Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to an accused person to appear and show cause why his sentence should not be enhanced; (e) deleted; (f) an application to which Chapter XXI, Part IV, applies; (viii) a case coming before the Court in the exercise of its ordinary or extraordinary original criminal jurisdiction; (ix) an appeal or revision from an order passed under Section 340, 341 or 348 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. A perusal of the Allahabad High Court Rules will demonstrate that all the appeals before a single Judge of the High Court are only such appeals in which a sentence other than life sentence or death sentence has been awarded to an accused.
(3.) REALISING that these appeals have come up for hearing after 17 or 18 years, after they were filed in the High Court, this Court enquired about the total pendency of criminal cases in the High Court. The information as given by Sri S.C. Srivastava, Section Officer of the Criminal Section of this Court indicates that as on 30.4.1996 total number of criminal cases pending in the High Court was 95,935. Out of them pending single Judge crl. appeals are 24,659. The other major nature of cases pending are 25,902 applications under Section 482, Code of Criminal Procedure; 16,957 crl. revisions and 13,756 two Judges crl. appeals and 11,208 matters of contempt. The two Judges Criminal Appeals are obviously such appeals in which the sentence awarded is either the life term or death after conviction by the trial court. These appeals are to be heard by a division Bench. Similarly, Crl. Contempt cases are again the matters which are to be heard by a division Bench comprising of atleast two Hon'ble Judges.;