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1978 (11) TMI 157

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..... s a major or a minor was immaterial. On 19th May, 1973, he made an order awarding maintenance at the rate of ₹ 200/- per month to Kirpal Kaur and ₹ 75/- per month to Ranbir Singh, Jagir Singh filed a revision petition before the Sessions Judge. By consent of the parties, the Sessions Judge made a reference to the High Court recommending that the award of maintenance in favour of the wife should be reduced to ₹ 150/- per month and that the award of ₹ 75/- per month to the son should be confirmed. The reference was accepted by the High Court. 2. The Criminal Procedure Code 1898 was repealed and the Criminal Procedure Code 1974 was enacted in its place. The new Code came into force on 1st April, 1974. On 3rd May, 1974, the appellant made an application before the Magistrate, purporting to be under Section 127 of the new Code, for cancellation of the order of maintenance in favour of the son on the ground that the son had attained majority and did not suffer from any infirmity or abnormality which prevented him from maintaining himself. It was claimed on behalf of the appellant that under the new Code it was not permissible to award maintenance or enforce an .....

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..... ntenance in his favour and that an order made in favour of such a son under Section 488 Criminal Procedure Code of 1898 was not saved either by Section 484(2) of the Code of Criminal Pocedure 1974 or Sections 6 and 24 of the General Clauses Act. Shri S.K. Mehta, learned Counsel for the respondent submitted that the revision application before the High Court could be treated and maintained as one directed against the order of the Sessions Judge rejecting the Revision Application made to him. In any case he argued that the Revision Application could be treated as one under Article 227 of the Constitution. He contended that the order of the Magistrate under Section 488 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898 continued to be in force and that it could not be cancelled merely because Section 125 did not provide for the award of maintenance to a major son who did not suffer from any abnormality or injury. 4. The first question for consideration is whether the High Court was precluded from interfering with the order of the Magistrate in the exercise of its revisional jurisdiction by reason of the provisions of Section 397(3) of the Criminal Procdure Code 1974. Section 397 which corresponds .....

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..... Act of Parliament shall not be evaded by shift or contrivance (per Abbott C.J. in Fox v. Bishop of Chester (1824) 2 B C 635 To carry out effectually the object of a Statute, it must be construed as to defeat all attempts to do, or avoid doing, in an indirect or circuitous manner that which it has prohibited or enjoined (Maxwell, 11th edition, page 109). When the Sessions Judge refused to interfere with the order of the Magistrate, the High Court's jurisdiction was invoked to avoid the order of the Magistrate and not that of the Sessions Judge. The bar of Section 397(3) was, therefore, effectively attracted and the bar could not be circumvented by the subterfuge of treating the revision application as directed against the Session Judge's order. 6. If the revision application to the High Court could not be maintained under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, could the order of the High Court be sustained under Article 227 of the Constitution, as now suggested by the respondent ? In the first place the High Court did not purport to exercise its power of superintendence under Article 227. The power under Article, 227 is a discretionary power and it is difficu .....

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..... ication to the High Court must be held to be incompetent. In that view it is unnecessary to go into the question whether the original order under Section 488, Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 in favour of the respondent could be cancelled under Section 127 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1974, But the lower Courts went into the question at some length and detailed submissions were made before us. We will express our opinion briefly. 8. Section 484(1) of the 1974 Code repeals the CrPC 1898. Section 484(2)(a) provides for the continuance and disposal of pending cases in accordance with the provision's of the old Code. Section 484(2)(b) provides that 'all notifications published, proclamations issued, powers conferred, forms prescribed, local jurisdictions defined, sentences passed and orders, rules and appointments made under the old Code and 'which are in force immediately before the commencement' of the new Code, shall be deemed, respectively, to have been published, issued, conferred, prescribed, defined, passed or made under the corresponding provisions of the new Code. In the present case the order of the Magistrate under Section 488 of the old Code awarding maint .....

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..... would be to give the expression corresponding provision the meaning identical provision . Whenever an Act is repealed and re-enacted there are bound to be changes and modifications. To say that a modified provision dealing with the same subject matter in substantially the same manner as the original provision is not a corresponding provision would be to practically nullify the effect of a Repeal and Savings provision like Section 484((2)(b) of the new Code. In the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary-Third Edition-Vol. I, the word 'correspond' is said to mean' to answer to something else in the way of fitness; to agree with; be conformable to; be congruous or in harmony with. (2) To answer to in character or function; to be similar to . In Butterworths 'Words and Phrases-Legally defined' Second Edition Vol. 1, it is said 'to correspond', does not usually, or properly, mean 'to be identical with', but 'to harmonise with', or 'to be suitable to' and reference is made to Sackville-West v. Holmesdale (Viscount) (1878) L.R. 4 L.H. 543. We are, therefore, of the view that Section 125 of the new Code corresponds to Section 488 of .....

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