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PETITIONER: BHAGWAN SINGH
Vs.
RESPONDENT: THE STATE OF PUNJAB
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 30/04/1952
BENCH: BOSE, VIVIAN BENCH: BOSE, VIVIAN FAZAL ALI, SAIYID
CITATION: 1952 AIR 214 1952 SCR 812 CITATOR INFO : R 1959 SC1012 (13) R 1980 SC 628 (11)
ACT: Evidence Act (1 of 1872) secs. 145, 157--Criminal Proce- dure Code, 1898, secs. 208, 288, 537,540--Criminal trial--Examination of witness not examined before Committing Magistrate--Legality-Statements before Committing Magis- trate--Admissibility--Statement not denied--Use as corrobo- rative evidence--Certificate of magistrate that deposition was read over--Presumption of correctness--Practice of examining Committing Magistrate, impropriety of.
HEADNOTE: The Sessions Court has power to examine witnesses who were not examined before the Committing Magistrate because of sec. 540, Criminal Procedure Code, and if the witness is treated as a prosecution witness and examined by the prose- cuting counsel instead of by the court, that at best would be an irrigularity curable by sec. 537 of the Code. The proper time to object to such a procedure would be at the trial itself. Sher Bahadur v. The Crown (I.L.R. 15 Lah. 331) and Queen Empress v. G.W. Hayfield (I.L.R. 14 All. 212)distin- quished S.S. Jhabwala v. Emperor (A.I.R. 1933 All. 690) and Mussamat. Niamat v. The Crown I.L.R. 1...