This is a reference by the Sessions Judge of West Godavary Division. The case was tried by a Magistrate who had second class powers and the trial was continued by him after he got first class powers. The case was renumbered after he got first class powers. He convicted the accused and an appeal against this conviction was preferred to the District Magistrate who quashed the conviction holding that the case against the accused was not made out. The question is whether the District Magistrate had jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the decision of a first class Magistrate. The District Magistrate seems to justify his action on the ground that the trial was started by a second class Magistrate and he thought that he had jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. Sect. 408 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 says:
“Any person convicted on a trial held by an Assistant Sessions Judge, a District Magistrate or other Magistrate of the first class, or any person sentenced under Sect. 349 or in respect of whom an order has been made or a sentence has been passed under Sect. 380 by a Magistrate of the first class, may appeal to the Court of Session.”
So it is clear that only a Court of Session that can hear appeals against convictions by first class Magistrates. It is contended for the accused before us that inasmuch as the trial was begun by a second class Magistrate the appeal lay to the District Magistrates. This on the face of it is an untenable position. The District Magistrate has jurisdiction to hear appeals only from the decisions of second class Magistrates. The moment a second class Magistrate is invested with the powers of a first class Magistrate he becomes a first class Magistrate and any convictions by him in cases which were taken up by him as a second class Magistrate would be only convictions as a first class Magistrate. We do not think it necessary to cite any authority but we may refer with approval to the case reported in Sheobhanjan Singh & Others… v. Emperor…Opposite Party.(1). The District Magistrate not having had jurisdiction to hear the appeal his decision must be set aside as being without jurisdiction. We therefore set aside the acquittal by the District Magistrate on appeal, direct the Sessions Judge to send for the appeal records from the District Magistrate's Court to take it on his file and to dispose of it according to law, after giving notice to the accused.
K. S. D.Order set aside.