Classes of Criminal Courts

"In every State". The structure is uniform across India. What differs from State to State is how many courts of each class there are, and that is settled by notification.

What changed in 2023, and it is not small

Section 6 of the old Code listed the same four classes, but with an important addition inside the second: "Judicial Magistrates of the first class and, in any metropolitan area, Metropolitan Magistrates". The Sanhita has dropped that clause, and with it a whole tier of the criminal judiciary.

The Metropolitan Magistrate is gone. The old Code allowed a State Government to declare any area with a population over one million to be a "metropolitan area", and the presidency towns and Ahmedabad were metropolitan areas from the start. Inside such an area the magistracy was called metropolitan and had its own Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. The word "metropolitan" appears on ninety-two lines of the old Code's official print and not once in the Sanhita. So in Mumbai, which was a metropolitan area, the courts are now Courts of Judicial Magistrates and the presiding officer at the head of the district magistracy is the Chief Judicial Magistrate.

The Assistant Sessions Judge is gone too. The old Code provided for Assistant Sessions Judges, gave them a sentencing power of up to ten years, and made them subordinate to the Sessions Judge by its section 10. The expression appears seventeen times in the old Code and not once in the Sanhita. Its working content survives, but attached to a different office: section 8(7) lets the Sessions Judge make orders distributing business among the Additional Sessions Judges, and section 8(8) provides for urgent applications in his absence being disposed of by an Additional Sessions Judge or, failing one, by the Chief Judicial Magistrate.

For a Mumbai student both changes are practical rather than academic. The court a case goes to has a different name from the one printed in a book bought two years ago.

Section 7: how the territory is divided

Every State is a sessions division or consists of sessions divisions. Every sessions division is a district or consists of districts. The State Government may alter the limits or the number of divisions and districts, and may divide a district into sub-divisions and alter those, but in each case only after consultation with the High Court. Divisions, districts and sub-divisions existing when the Sanhita commenced are deemed to have been formed under section 7, so nothing had to be re-notified on 1 July 2024.

The consultation requirement is the part to remember. Redrawing a sessions division moves cases and judges, so the executive cannot do it alone.

Section 8: the Court of Session

The State Government establishes a Court of Session for every sessions division. The High Court appoints the Judge who presides over it, and may also appoint Additional Sessions Judges to exercise jurisdiction in it. A Sessions Judge of one division may be appointed an Additional Sessions Judge of another, and may then sit at such places in the other division as the High Court directs.

Where the office of Sessions Judge is vacant, the High Court may arrange for urgent applications to be disposed of by an Additional Sessions Judge or, if there is none, by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of the division, and that Judge or Magistrate then has jurisdiction to deal with them.

The Court of Session ordinarily sits where the High Court specifies by notification. But in a particular case, if it thinks the general convenience of the parties and witnesses will be served, it may sit at another place in the sessions division, with the consent of the prosecution and the accused.

Sub-sections (7) and (8) are the ones that absorbed the old section 10. The Sessions Judge may make orders distributing business among the Additional Sessions Judges, and may provide for urgent applications during his absence or inability to act to be dealt with by an Additional Sessions Judge or, failing that, the Chief Judicial Magistrate.

Sections 9 to 11: the Magistrates' courts

Section 9, Courts of Judicial Magistrates. In every district the State Government, after consultation with the High Court, establishes by notification as many Courts of Judicial Magistrates of the first and second class as it specifies, at the places it specifies. The High Court appoints their presiding officers.

The proviso to section 9(1) is worth knowing because it explains a name a student meets in the newspapers. The State Government may, after consultation with the High Court, establish for any local area one or more Special Courts of Judicial Magistrates to try a particular case or class of cases. Where such a Special Court is established, no other Magistrate's court in that local area has jurisdiction over those cases. So the jurisdiction is exclusive, not additional.

Section 9(3) lets the High Court, where it appears expedient or necessary, confer the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first or second class on a member of the State Judicial Service who is functioning as a Judge in a civil court. That is how a civil judge comes to try criminal cases in a small station.

Section 10, the Chief Judicial Magistrate. In every district the High Court shall appoint a Judicial Magistrate of the first class to be the Chief Judicial Magistrate. It may appoint any Judicial Magistrate of the first class to be an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, with all or any of the Chief Judicial Magistrate's powers as the High Court directs. It may designate a Judicial Magistrate of the first class in a sub-division as the Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, who, subject to the general control of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, supervises and controls the work of the Judicial Magistrates in the sub-division other than Additional Chief Judicial Magistrates.

Notice the difference between "shall" in sub-section (1) and "may" in sub-sections (2) and (3). Every district must have a Chief Judicial Magistrate. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrates and Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrates are optional.

Section 11, Special Judicial Magistrates. On the request of the Central or State Government, the High Court may confer on a person who holds or has held a post under the Government all or any of the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first or second class, for particular cases or classes of cases in a local area. The proviso adds a real limit: no such power may be conferred unless the person has the qualification or experience in legal affairs that the High Court specifies by rules. The appointment is for a term not exceeding one year at a time.

Sections 12 and 13: where they sit, and who they answer to

Section 12, local jurisdiction. Subject to the High Court's control, the Chief Judicial Magistrate defines the local limits within which Magistrates appointed under section 9 or section 11 may exercise their powers. Unless he defines otherwise, a Magistrate's jurisdiction and powers extend throughout the district. A Court of a Special Judicial Magistrate may sit anywhere within the local area for which it is established.

Sub-section (3) handles the awkward case of a Magistrate whose local jurisdiction crosses a district boundary: within that area, a reference in the Sanhita to the Court of Session or the Chief Judicial Magistrate means the Court of Session or Chief Judicial Magistrate for the district in which he ordinarily holds court.

Section 13, subordination. Every Chief Judicial Magistrate is subordinate to the Sessions Judge. Every other Judicial Magistrate is subordinate to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, subject to the general control of the Sessions Judge. The Chief Judicial Magistrate may make rules or give special orders, consistent with the Sanhita, distributing business among the Magistrates subordinate to him.

Subordination here is administrative. It settles who allots the work and who supervises; it does not entitle a Sessions Judge to tell a Magistrate what to decide in a case before him.

A worked example

Thane district has a Court of Session, and Thane is a sessions division. Anjali is a Judicial Magistrate of the first class posted at Kalyan, inside Thane district.

Who appointed her to that court? The State Government established the court at Kalyan by notification after consulting the High Court, under section 9(1). The High Court appointed her as its presiding officer, under section 9(2). Both steps are needed and they are done by different authorities.

How far does her jurisdiction run? Throughout Thane district, unless the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Thane has defined narrower limits under section 12(1). That is section 12(2).

Who is her administrative superior? The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Thane, under section 13(1), and above him the Sessions Judge, whose general control section 13(1) preserves.

A wave of food adulteration cases arrives. The State Government, after consulting the High Court, establishes a Special Court of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class at Kalyan to try them, under the proviso to section 9(1). From that day Anjali's court cannot try those cases, because the proviso makes the Special Court's jurisdiction exclusive.

A retired Deputy Collector is proposed as a Special Judicial Magistrate for a class of cases. The High Court may confer the powers under section 11, but only if he has the qualification or experience in legal affairs the High Court's rules specify, and only for a term of up to one year at a time.

Distinctions

What this does NOT mean

Section 6 does not create the High Court. It expressly says "besides the High Courts", because the High Court is a creature of the Constitution.

Subordination under section 13 is not judicial control. A Sessions Judge cannot direct a Magistrate on the merits of a pending case. What he has is general administrative control.

A Special Judicial Magistrate under section 11 is not the same as a Special Court under the proviso to section 9(1). The first is a person on whom powers are conferred; the second is a court established for a class of cases. Nor is either the same as a Special Court under a special Act, such as a POCSO Special Court, which is created by that Act and not by the Sanhita.

And a "metropolitan area" is not a thing any more. A student who writes about a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in an answer on the Sanhita is describing a court that no longer exists.

Quick revision

• Section 6: four classes besides the High Courts and courts under other laws, namely Courts of Session, Judicial Magistrates of the first class, Judicial Magistrates of the second class, and Executive Magistrates.
• Section 7: State to sessions division to district to sub-division; alterations only after consultation with the High Court.
• Section 8: Court of Session established by the State Government; Judge and Additional Sessions Judges appointed by the High Court; sub-sections (7) and (8) carry what the old section 10 did.
• Section 9: Magistrates' courts established by the State Government after consulting the High Court; presiding officers appointed by the High Court; the proviso allows an exclusive Special Court of a Judicial Magistrate.
• Section 10: the High Court shall appoint a Chief Judicial Magistrate in every district, and may appoint an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate and designate a Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate.
• Section 11: Special Judicial Magistrates, only with the qualification or experience the High Court's rules require, for not more than one year at a time.
• Section 12: jurisdiction runs throughout the district unless the Chief Judicial Magistrate defines narrower limits.
• Section 13: Chief Judicial Magistrate subordinate to the Sessions Judge; other Judicial Magistrates subordinate to the Chief Judicial Magistrate.
• Abolished: Metropolitan Magistrates and the whole metropolitan structure, and the Assistant Sessions Judge.

Test yourself

1. Name the classes of criminal courts under section 6. Courts of Session, Judicial Magistrates of the first class, Judicial Magistrates of the second class, and Executive Magistrates, besides the High Courts and courts constituted under any law other than the Sanhita.

2. Who establishes a Court of a Judicial Magistrate, and who appoints its presiding officer? The State Government establishes it by notification after consultation with the High Court, section 9(1). The High Court appoints the presiding officer, section 9(2).

3. A Special Court of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class is established at Kalyan for a class of cases. May the ordinary Magistrate at Kalyan still try one of those cases? No. The proviso to section 9(1) says that where such a Special Court is established, no other Court of Magistrate in the local area has jurisdiction to try that case or class of cases.

4. What has become of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate? The office is abolished. The Sanhita has no metropolitan magistracy at all, and the Chief Judicial Magistrate appointed under section 10(1) heads the district magistracy everywhere.

5. For how long may a Special Judicial Magistrate be appointed? For a term not exceeding one year at a time, section 11(2), and only if he has the qualification or experience in legal affairs specified by the High Court's rules.

6. Where does the substance of the old section 10, subordination of Assistant Sessions Judges, now sit? In sections 8(7) and 8(8), recast for Additional Sessions Judges, because the office of Assistant Sessions Judge no longer exists.

7. May a Court of Session sit somewhere other than the place the High Court has notified? Yes, in a particular case, if it is of opinion that this will serve the general convenience of the parties and witnesses, and with the consent of the prosecution and the accused, under section 8(6).