Trial, the Special Judge and Attachment

In one line

Offences under the Act are tried only by a special Judge, who is a Sessions Judge by qualification, takes cognizance without committal, tries the case as expeditiously as possible and may attach the property.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: sections 3 to 6 provide for the appointment of special Judges, their exclusive jurisdiction, their procedure and summary trial; section 22 applies the Code of Criminal Procedure subject to modifications; section 23 governs particulars in a charge of criminal misconduct; and section 18A applies the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance 1944 to the attachment of property.

The special Judge

Appointment, section 3. The Central Government or the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint as many special Judges as may be necessary for such area or areas or for such case or group of cases as may be specified, to try offences punishable under the Act and any conspiracy to commit, attempt to commit or abetment of such an offence.

Qualification. A person is not qualified for appointment as a special Judge unless he is or has been a Sessions Judge, an Additional Sessions Judge or an Assistant Sessions Judge under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Exclusive jurisdiction, section 4. Every offence punishable under the Act shall be tried by the special Judge for the area within which it was committed, or by the special Judge appointed for the case. When trying any case, a special Judge may also try any offence other than one under the Act with which the accused may, under the Code, be charged at the same trial. And a case is to be tried as expeditiously as possible and, so far as practicable, held from day to day.

Procedure, section 5. A special Judge may take cognizance of offences without the accused being committed to him for trial, and in trying the accused shall follow the procedure prescribed by the Code for the trial of warrant cases by Magistrates. He may tender a pardon to a person supposed to have been directly or indirectly concerned in or privy to an offence, on condition of a full and true disclosure, and for the purpose of the trial is deemed to be a Court of Session.

Section 6 provides for summary trial in certain cases where the offence is punishable with imprisonment not exceeding a stated term.

Why this design. Committal proceedings and the ordinary hierarchy were thought to be the causes of delay, so the Act removes committal, fixes exclusive jurisdiction, gives the trial court the powers of a Court of Session and directs day-to-day hearing. The result, as the chapter on what the Act has achieved shows, is that corruption trials take about as long as any other, which tells you that committal was not the cause.