In this Act, unless there he something repugnant in the subject or the context

High Court. High Court denotes Her Majesty's High Court of Judicature for the North-Western Provinces of the Presidency of Port William:

Lieutenant-Governor. Lieutenant-Governor denotes the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being of the said Provinces:

Magistrate. denotes any person exercising any of the Magistrate powers of a Magistrate under the Code of Criminal Procedure:

Registrar. Registrar includes, besides such Officer, any Officer specially appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor to discharge the functions given by this Act to the Registrar:

Number Gender. Words in the singular include the plural, and words denoting the masculine gender include females.

Any Justice of the Peace or Magistrate within or without the said Provinces, before whom any European British subject shall be brought for an offence committed within the said Provinces, for an offence which under or by virtue of any law or order made or issued by the Governor General of India in Council shall have been made triable by the High Court, and who shall commit or hold to bail such person for trial shall, together with the record of the preliminary enquiry and all recognizances and other documents, and any weapon or article of property connected with the case, and translations into English of any writings not in that language, deliver to the Registrar of the High Court a written instrument of charge signed by him stating for what offence such person is so committed or held to bail.

The High Court, or any Officer specially authorized by the High Court in this behalf, shall consider the charge, and may, if it appear necessary or expedient so to do, amend, alter or add to the same.

Charge with amendments, alterations or addition (if any) to be record. The charge, with such amendments, alterations or additions, if any, shall be recorded in the High Court, and the person charged shall he entitled to have a copy of such charge with such amendments, alterations or additions (if any) gratis.

The person charged shall also, if he demands them at a reasonable time before the trial, be furnished with copies of the depositions of the witnesses upon whose depositions he has been so committed or held to bail, on payment of a reasonable sum for the same, not exceeding one anna for each folio of ninety words.

Upon charges recorded as aforesaid, persons committed to custody or held to bail shall be deemed to have been brought before the High Court in due course of law, and (subject to the provisions contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure as to the amendment and alteration of charges, and subject also to the provisions of the next following Section) shall be tried upon the charges so recorded.

When any such charge shall have been recorded in the High Court as aforesaid, and shall at any time before the commencement of the person charged appear to the High Court to be clearly unsustainable, an entry to that effect may be made on the charge by a Judge of the Court.

Effect of such order. Such entry shall have the effect of staying proceedings upon the charge, but shall not operate as an acquittal of the person charged, unless and until three years from the time of making the entry shall have elapsed, at the expiration of which period, if no fresh charge have been brought on the same matter, he shall he considered as having been acquitted.

The High Court shall ordinarily hold its sittings at such place as the Lieutenant-Governor shall direct in that behalf: but the High Court or any Division of the High Court may from time to time, with the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor, hold sittings at such other places in the said Provinces as shall seem convenient. Due notice shall he given beforehand in the Official Gazette of all sittings intended to he held for; the trial of cases in the exercise of the original Criminal jurisdiction of the Court.

It shall be lawful for the High Court to direct that all European British subjects committed or hailed for trial within certain specified districts, or during certain specified periods of the year, shall be tried at the usual place of sitting of the Court, or to direct that they shall he tried at a particular place named; and also to order that such European British subjects shall, if not hailed, he committed for intermediate custody to a particular jail being one of the jails appointed by the Government for the reception of such prisoners.

If the trial shall be directed to take place at the usual place of sitting of the Court, or if no general direction shall have been given under the last preceding Section, the Justice of the Peace or Magistrate shall bind over the person charged to appear and take his trial at such usual place of sitting, or shall commit him to the jail at such place. If the High Court shall direct that the person charged he tried elsewhere than in its usual place of sitting, the Justice of the Peace or Magistrate shall hind him over to appear and take his trial in the place directed, or (as the case may be) shall, if necessary, cause him to be removed to the Criminal jail of or nearest to the place at which such person is directed to he tried, and the Officer in charge of such Criminal jail shall keep such person in safe custody until discharged in due course of law. The High Court may direct that the person charged shall he admitted to bail, or that the bail required by the Justice of the Peace or Magistrate shall be reduced.

All trials under Section 2 of this Act shall be by Jury.

Whenever the High Court shall have given notice of its intention to hold sittings at any place for the exercise of its original Criminal jurisdiction, the Court of Session at such place shall take and cause to he taken the measures prescribed by Sections 836 to 840, both inclusive, of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the summoning of Jurors; and in addition to the persons so summoned as Jurors, the said Court of Session shall, if it shall think needful after communication with the Commanding Officer cause to be summoned such number of Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers in the Military Service, resident within ten miles of its place of sitting, as the Court shall consider to be necessary to make up the Juries required for the trial of European British subjects charged with offences before the High Court as aforesaid. All Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers so summoned shall he liable to serve on such Juries notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure. But no Commissioned or Non-Commissioned Officer shall he summoned whom his Commanding Officer shall desire to have excused on the ground of urgent military duty, or for any other special military reason. The Juries for the trial of European British subjects as aforesaid, shall be formed in the manner required by the Code of Criminal Procedure and by this Act from the persons summoned under the said Sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and from the Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers summoned as aforesaid, or, if no such Officer have been summoned, then solely from the persons summoned under the same Sections.

If any European British subject charged as aforesaid, shall so require before the Jury shall be empanelled, the majority of the Jurors shall consist of Europeans or Americans, or both Europeans and Americans.

On every trial of an European British subject under this Act, the Jury shall consist of twelve persons, and unanimity or a majority of not less than nine with the concurrence of the presiding Judge, shall be necessary for a verdict of guilty. In default of such unanimity or of such majority and concurrence, the prisoner shall be acquitted.

So much of Section 380 of the Code of Criminal Procedure as requires the confirmation by the Sudder Court of sentences of death passed by a Court of Session, and so much of the same Section as requires from the Court, a statement of the grounds on which a person convicted of an offence made punishable by death by the Indian Penal Code has been sentenced to a punishment other than death, shall not apply to sentences by the High Court passed in the exercise of its original Criminal jurisdiction.

So much of the 26^th Chapter of the Code of Criminal Procedure as requires judgment to be passed by a Criminal Court in any particular form, and as requires that the sentence or finding shall he recorded in any particular form, shall not apply to judgments, sentences or findings in trials before the High Court, acting in the exercise of its original Criminal jurisdiction, but the High Court shall pass judgment and shall record or cause to he recorded the sentence and finding in such form as it shall think proper.

When any person has been convicted of an offence before a Judge of the High Court, acting in the exercise of its original Criminal jurisdiction, the Judge, if he think proper, may reserve for the decision of a Court consisting of such Judge and one or more other Judge Judges of the High Court any question of law or of the admissibility of evidence which has arisen in the course of the trial of such person. If the Judge reserve no such question, lie shall forward the prisoner with a copy of his sentence and a warrant for the execution of the same to the Magistrate or other Officer in charge of the jail of the district or place in which the trial was held, and on the receipt of the warrant such Magistrate or other Officer shall proceed as provided in Section 385 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. If the Judge reserve any question of law or of the admissibility of evidence, the person convicted shall, pending the decision thereon, he remanded to jail. If the decision of the High Court he adverse to the person convicted, the Court shall send a copy of its sentence and a warrant for the execution of the same to the Magistrate or other Officer in charge of the jail to which the prisoner shall have been remanded, and such Magistrate or other Officer shall proceed as provided in the same Section.

Save as is hereinbefore otherwise provided, the Code of Criminal Procedure shall apply to the constitution and formation of Juries for the purpose of trials before the High Court, acting in the exercise of its original Criminal jurisdiction, and to trials before such Court, and to sentences by such Court, and to the carrying into execution of such sentences.

The operation, of the following Sections of Act No. VIII of 1869, namely Sections 184, 185, 186 and 359, relating to the manner in which the judgments of the Courts of Civil Judicature are to be recorded, and so much of the same Act as extends the provisions of the same Sections to the orders of the Courts of Civil Judicature not being judgments or decrees, is hereby suspended in the High Court; and the High Court, and every Division Court its and Judge thereof, shall record their and his judgments and the orders passed by them and him respectively in such manner as the High Court shall by any general rule or rules from time to time direct.

The High Court may by its own rules fix the time, within Court may fix the which appeals from or applications for review of any judgments, orders of decrees made by any Division Court, or by any Judge or Judges of the said High Court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction, shall be preferred.

Whenever it shall appear necessary to a Judge of the High Court that a decree made in the exercise of the original Civil jurisdiction of the said Court ought to he enforced before the amount of the costs incurred in the suit can be ascertained by taxation, the Judge may order that the decree shall be executed forthwith except as to so much thereof as relates to the costs, and, as to so much thereof as relates to the costs, that the same may be executed as soon as the amount of the costs shall he ascertained by taxation. The High Court may appoint the Registrar to he Taxing Officer.

Whenever anything is directed by the said Act No. VIII of 1859 to be done by or through a Pleader, the High Court, or any Judge thereof in the exercise of its original Civil jurisdiction certain may authorize such act to be done by or through an Attorney-at-law of the High Courts Provided that no Attorney shall be authorized under the provisions of tills Section to plead in the High Court of in any Division Court for any other person.

The procedure in all cases which shall be brought before the High Court in the exercise of its original in testete jurisdiction, shall he regulated as far as the circumstances of the case will admit by the rules of procedure laid down in the Indian Succession Act, 1865, whether the Act itself applies to the case or not, and in cases to which such rules are inapplicable the procedure shall he regulated by the Code of Civil Procedure.

This Act shall be called The High Court (North-Western Provinces) Act, 1866.