Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Subordination of Assistant Sessions Judges.

10. (1) All Assistant Sessions Judges shall be subordinate to the Sessions Judge in whose Court they exercise jurisdiction.

(2) The Sessions Judge may, from time to time, make rules consistent with this Code, as to the distribution of business among such Assistant Sessions Judges.

(3) The Sessions Judge may also make provision for the disposal of any urgent application, in the event of his absence or inability to act, by an Additional or Assistant Sessions Judge, or, if there be no Additional or Assistant Sessions Judge, by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, and every such Judge or Magistrate shall be deemed to have jurisdiction to deal with any such application.

COMMENTS

Scope of sub-section (3) and transfer of bail applications - Sub-section (3) confers power on the Sessions Judge to make over an urgent application to the Additional or Assistant Sessions Judge or CJM, for disposal under either of the two circumstances, namely, his absence or his "inability to act". By reason of the use of expression "inability to act", a Sessions Judge can make over an urgent application for disposal to an Additional Sessions Judge not only when he is physically incapable of acting but also when he is otherwise unable to act due to pressure of other work.

The transfer of trial cases by the Sessions Judge to the Additional Sessions Judge is provided in section 194. section 400 deals with transfer of revision cases, and the transfer of criminal appeals is dealt in section 481. The only provision, therefore, under which a Sessions Judge can make over an application for bail to an Additional Sessions Judge is section 10(3)-Vide T.V. Sarma v. A. Nagakoteshwarrao 1977 Cr. LJ 19.