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1. Whether the recent amendment dated 22nd February, 2008 in the Schedule-I of the Cr.P.C. is to be applied retrospectively?
2. Consequently, whether the cases pending before the Magistrate First Class, in which evidence partly or wholly has been recorded, and now have been committed to this Court are to be tried de novo by the Court of Sessions or should be remanded back to the Magistrate First Class for further trial?
4. A Full Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Re: Amendment of First Schedule of Criminal Procedure Code by Criminal Procedure Code (M. P. Amendment) Act, 2007 2008 (3) MPLJ 311, answered the reference and held that all cases pending before the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class as on 22nd February, 2008 remained unaffected by the amendment and were triable by the Judicial Magistrate First Class as the Amendment Act did not contain a clear indication that such cases also have to be made over to the Court of Sessions. The Court further held that all such cases as were pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class and had been committed to the Sessions Court shall be sent back to the Judicial Magistrate First Class in accordance with law. The reference was answered accordingly.
6. The Code of Criminal Procedure (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Act, 2007 is in the following words:
“An Act further to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in its application to the State of Madhya Pradesh.
Be it enacted by the Madhya Pradesh Legislature in the Fifty-eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows:
1. Short title. – (1) This Act may be called the Code of Criminal Procedure (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Act, 2007.
7. The First Schedule to the Criminal Procedure Code 1973 classifies offences under the IPC for purposes of determining whether or not a particular offence is cognizable or non-cognizable and bailable or non-

bailable. Column 6 of the First Schedule indicates the Court by which the offence in question is triable. The Madhya Pradesh Amendment extracted above has shifted the forum of trial from the Court of a Magistrate of First Class to the Court of Sessions. The question is whether the said amendment is prospective and will be applicable only to offences committed after the date the amendment was notified or would govern cases that were pending on the date of the amendment or may have been filed after the same had become operative. The Full Bench has taken the view that since there is no specific provision contained in the Amendment Act making the amendment applicable to pending cases, the same would not apply to cases that were already filed before the Magistrate. This implies that if a case had not been filed upto the date the Amendment Act came into force, it would be governed by the Amended Code and hence be triable only by the Sessions Court. The Code of Criminal Procedure does not, however, provide any definition of institution of a case. It is, however, trite that a case must be deemed to be instituted only when the Court competent to take cognizance of the offence alleged therein does so. The cognizance can, in turn, be taken by a Magistrate on a complaint of facts filed before him which constitutes such an offence. It may also be taken if a police report is filed before the Magistrate in writing of such facts as would constitute an offence. The Magistrate may also take cognizance of an offence on the basis of his knowledge or suspicion upon receipt of the information from any person other than a police officer. In the case of the Sessions Court, such cognizance is taken on commitment to it by a Magistrate duly empowered in that behalf. All this implies that the case is instituted in the Magistrate’s Court when the Magistrate takes cognizance of an offence, in which event the case is one instituted on a complaint or a police report. The decision of this Court in Jamuna Singh and Ors. v. Bahdai Shah AIR 1964 SC 1541, clearly explains the legal position in this regard. To the same effect is the decision of this Court in Devrapally Lakshminarayana Reddy and Ors. v. Narayana Reddy and Ors. (1976) 3 SCC 252 where this Court held that a case can be said to be instituted in a Court only when the Court takes cognizance of the offence alleged therein and that cognizance can be taken in the manner set out in clauses (a) to (c) of Section 190(1) of the Cr.P.C. We may also refer to the decision of this Court in Kamlapati Trivedi v. State of West Bengal (1980) 2 SCC 91 where this Court interpreted the provisions of Section 190 Cr.P.C. and reiterated the legal position set out in the earlier decisions.

14. The questions formulated by the Full Bench of the High Court were answered in the negative holding that all cases pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class as on 22nd February, 2008 when the amendment to the First Schedule to the Cr.P.C. became operative, will remain unaffected by the said amendment and such matters as were, in the meanwhile committed to the Court of Sessions, will be sent back to the Judicial Magistrate First Class for trial in accordance with law. In coming to that conclusion the Full Bench placed reliance upon three decisions of this Court in Manujendra Dutt. v. Purnedu Prosad Roy Chowdhury & Ors. AIR 1967 SC 1419, Commissioner of Income-tax, Bangalore v. Smt. R. Sharadamma (1996) 8 SCC 388 and R. Kapilanath(Dead) through L.R. v. Krishna (2003) 1 SCC 444. The ratio of the above decisions, in our opinion, was not directly applicable to the fact situation before the Full Bench. The Full Bench of the High Court was concerned with cases where evidence had been wholly or partly recorded before the Judicial Magistrate First Class when the same were committed to the Court of Sessions pursuant to the amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The decisions upon which the High Court placed reliance did not, however, deal with those kind of fact situations. In Manujendra Dutt’s case (supra) the proceedings in the Court in which the suit was instituted had concluded. At any rate, no vested right could be claimed for a particular forum for litigation. The decisions of this Court referred to by us earlier settle the legal position which bears no repetition. It is also noteworthy that the decision in Manujendra Dutt’s case (supra) was subsequently overruled by a seven-Judge Bench of this Court in V. Dhanapal Chettiar v. Yesodai Ammal (1979) 4 SCC 214 though on a different legal point.