In Re: K. Rangan and Others

It is urged by counsel for the petitioners that some of the persons who have been required to give security for good behaviour reside outside the

jurisdiction of the Magistrate who took action u/s 110, Criminal Procedure Code, and our attention is drawn to the case of Ketaboi v. Queen-

Empress ILR (1900) 27 Calc., 993.

In that case it was held that, according to the true construction of Section 110, the Magistrate would have no jurisdiction to deal with the case,

unless the person proceeded against was ""residing"" within the local jurisdiction of the Magistrate.

With all respect to the learned Judges who decided that case, we are not prepared to follow their decision. The words of the section are

wherever... a Magistrate... receives information that any person within the local limits of his jurisdiction... is by habit a robber"" and so forth, he

may proceed under the section. Had the legislature intended to restrict the jurisdiction of the Magistrate to persons residing within his local

jurisdiction, nothing would have been easier than to have said so; but the legislature has refrained from imposing this limitation, and we are not

justified in importing it into the law. The law simply says ""any person within the local limits"" and this we understand to mean any person who is

within the local limits at the time when the Magistrate takes action under the section. The object of the section is the prevention of crime, and its

object would, in our opinion, be liable to be defeated if its scope were restricted to persons residing within the Magistrate''s jurisdiction. As the

Sessions Judge points out if that were so, we should have this absurdity that the Magistrates in British India would have no power to proceed

under the section against bad characters, no matter how desperate and dangerous they might be, who reside in French or other foreign territory,

though they might in test villages in British India, and be well known to the authorities as habitual thieves; nor would any Magistrate have power to

proceed against those gangs of criminals who have no residence any where but wander from district to district throughout the year.

We dismiss the petition.