Pronouncement of judgements by successor judge 'invalid': HC

Citing legal provisions, a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Manmohan Singh said, "It (section 326 of CrPC) does not empower the successor magistrate to merely 'announce' a 'judgement' written by the predecessor judge or magistrate."

The provision "only enables a successor judge or magistrate to act on evidence recorded by the predecessor judge or magistrate and then proceed to pronounce the judgement (on his own)," the bench said.

Terming pronouncements of judgements in two criminal cases by successor judge as "invalid", the court set them aside and remanded the matters to "concerned additional sessions judge having jurisdiction for concluding the trial and hearing arguments and thereafter pronouncing judgements thereon."

Jitender alias Kalle, who was tried in two separate murder cases registered with Keshav Puram and Mukherjee Nagar police stations in 1999, had been awarded life imprisonment in the matters with Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau pronouncing orders on sentences respectively on March 17 and 20 in two cases.

It was Lau's predecessor Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar, who had reserved and dictated the judgements in both the cases before his transfer as a joint registrar to the Delhi High Court on February 11, 2010.

The "judgements", dictated and signed by ASJ Parashar who had heard the arguments in trials, were "announced" by the successor judge after his transfer to high court. MORE