http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA Page 1 of 5
PETITIONER: BALDEO SINGH AND OTHERS
Vs.
RESPONDENT: THE STATE OF BIHAR AND OTHERS
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 22/04/1957
BENCH: DAS, S.K. BENCH: DAS, S.K. DAS, SUDHI RANJAN (CJ) IMAM, SYED JAFFER MENON, P. GOVINDA SARKAR, A.K.
CITATION: 1957 AIR 612 1957 SCR 995
ACT: Gram Cutcherry-Criminal jurisdiction--Concurrent jurisdic- tion of ordinary criminal Courts--Enactment, if discriminatory in character--Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (Bihar Act 7 of 1948), ss. 60, 62, 68, 69, 70, 73- Constitution of India, Art. 14.
HEADNOTE: The appellants were convicted of an offence under s. 379 of the Indian penal Code by a full bench of the Gram Cutcherry constituted under the provisions of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 1947. It was contended for the appellants that the conviction was bad on the grounds, inter alia, that s. 62 of the Act which provided for the criminal jurisdiction of Gram Cutcherries gave concurrent jurisdiction to the ordinary criminal Courts and left it open to a party to go either to the ordinary criminal Courts or to a bench of the Gram Cutcherry, and as the procedure followed in the ordinary criminal Courts was substantially different from that followed by a Gram Cutcherry, the Act was discriminatory in nature and as such infringed Art. 14 of the Constitution. Held, that the impugned provisions of the Act are not discriminatory in ...