Agartala: A recent notification by Registrar of High Court of Tripura has triggered controversy while the state government moves to Election Commission of India (ECI) to resolve the issue.
According to official report, Registrar General of High Court of Tripura, M Chakraborty in a notification on March 12 last has conferred the power of special judicial magistrate 1st Class on all sub divisional magistrates (SDM) and additional sub divisional magistrates (ASDM) for March 22nd and 23rd to deal with urgent criminal matters.
According to the order under section 13 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), SDM and ASDM have given power to judge the criminal matters like bail petition but the Registrar has committed procedural mistake in conferring the power that further complicated the issue, said a senior official of Law department.
As per the Act, High Court can confer the power upon the particular SDM and ASDM who possess qualification or experience in relation to legal affairs, if state government or central government requested the High Court but in this case allegedly, the state neither request nor the government was consulted.
The official argued that the Registrar General put the government in trouble, as the process of Loksabha election has already began and notification for first phase election was issued.
Refusing to go on record a senior advocate of the high court of Tripura said that the first anniversary of the high court is scheduled to come off on March 22-23 next.
All the judicial officers of the state have been directed by the high court to attend the annual judicial conference slated to come off on the occasion as official duty.
He said that in order to ensure maximum attendance of judicial officers the powers of special judicial magistrate 1st class have been conferred on SDMs and ASDMs for the two days of conference. (UNI)
