LAW FOR ALL

It is a wide power to be exercised in the interest of justice. Sessions Court has got power under Section 408 to transfer a particular case from a criminal court to another criminal court in that Sessions Division. Neither Section 408 nor any other provision in Cr.P.C. empowers the Sessions Court to call for a case from the Magistrate Court for trial to that Court without a committal order. Section 408(1) of Cr.P.C. only gives power to the Sessions Judge to transfer a case pending in one Criminal Court to another Criminal Court in his Sessions Division. However, it does not give power to the Sessions Court to call for a case to that court from the Magistrate Court without formal Committal. Committal of a case from the Magistrate Court to the Sessions Court cannot be equated to transfer under Section 408(1) of Cr.P.C. In the case of a direction to commit a case from the Magistrate Court to Sessions Court the proviso is not a bar in exercising the power of the High Court conferred under Section 407(1)(iii) of Cr.P.C.