Case: Ramesh Kumar Soni Vs. State Of Madhya Pradesh

3. Crime No.129 of 2007 for commission of offences punishable under Sections 408, 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC was registered against the appellant on 18th May, 2007, at Bheraghat Police Station. On the date of the registration of the case the offences in question were triable by a Magistrate of First Class in terms of the First Schedule of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. That position underwent a change on account of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Act of 2007 introduced by Madhya Pradesh Act 2 of 2008 which amended the First Schedule of the 1973 Code and among others made offences under Sections 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC triable by the Court of Sessions instead of a Magistrate of First Class. The amendment received the assent of the President on 14th February, 2008 and was published in Madhya Pradesh Gazette (Extraordinary) on 22nd February, 2008. Consequent upon the amendment aforementioned, the Judicial Magistrate, First Class appears to have committed to the Sessions Court all cases involving commission of offences under the above provisions. In one such case the Sessions Judge, Jabalpur, made a reference to the High Court on the following two distinct questions ofWhether the recent amendment dated 22nd February, 2008 in theof 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 furtherA 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.5. Relying upon the decision of the Full Bench the appellant filed an application before the trial Court seeking a similar direction for remission of the case for trial by a Judicial Magistrate. The appellant argued on the authority of the above decision that although the police had not filed aagainst the appellant and the investigation in the case was pending as on the date the amendment came into force, the appellant had acquired the right of trial by a forum specified in Schedule I of the 1973 Code. Any amendment to the said provision shifting the forum of trial to the Court of Sessions was not attracted to thecase thereby rendering the committal of the case to the Sessions Court and the proposed trial of the appellant before the Sessions Court illegal. The trial Court, as mentioned earlier, repelled that contention and held that since nohad been filed before the Magistrate as on the date the amendment came into force, the case was exclusively triable by the Sessions Court. The High Court has affirmed that view and dismissed the revision petition filed by the appellant, hence the present appeal.

Reasoning: 24. In Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation and Anr. v. Bal Mukund Bairwa (2009) 4 SCC 299 , this Court relied upon the observations made by Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo in his famous compilation of lectures The Nature of Judicial Process – thatin the vast majority of cases, a judgment would be retrospective. It is only where the hardships are too great that retrospective operation is withheld.The present case, in our opinion, is one in which we need to make it clear that the overruling of the Full Bench decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court will not affect cases that have already been tried or are at an advanced stage before the Magistrates in terms of the said decision.