RAMSARAN RAJARAM KURMI AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application arising out of the judgment and order of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Bhandara, dated 1-12-1975. The important question raised by this criminal application is whether under section 397(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (No. 2 of 1974) a revision application is barred from the order passed by the Judicial Magistrate, First Class refusing bail, especially under circumstances when the provisions of section 167(2) have come into operation. In other words, the question raised by this application is whether an order passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate refusing to exercise his jurisdiction to grant bail when the prosecuting agencies have not completed the investigation and filed a charge-sheet for a period of sixty days after the arrest of the accused, is an interlocutory order as mentioned in section 397 and, therefore, cannot be revised by the appellate Court, or whether it is an order which finally decides the rights of the parties irrespective of the relation to the proceedings in which such right has arisen.

(2.) In order to appreciate the arguments advanced at the Bar, it will be necessary first to look at certain provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Sec. 167 is in Chapter XII of the Code, which is headed "Information to the police and their powers to investigate". Sec. 167(1) reads as follows:

(3.) Chapter XXIV deals with"General Provisions as to inquiries and trials", and section 309 in that Chapter provides as follows: