Namar was appointed as Director (Engineering) in BHAL Ltd. Though he was from engineering background, he had a liking to understand the legal aspects. He had read well about the procedures but required some clarity. In o

Courts of Magistrates are the basic Courts for conducting trial of criminal offences. In Metropolitan Cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, respectively the capitals of the States of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, have special category of Magistrates called Presidency Magistrates / Chief Metropolitan Magistrates. The following are the powers of Criminal Courts [Section 28 and 29 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1972(CrPC)]: Name of the Court Power High Court To award any sentence as authorized by law Sessions Judge / Additional Sessions Judge To award any sentence authorized by law. Sentence of death shall be subject to confirmation by High Court. Assistant Sessions Judge To award any sentence authorised by law except a sentence of death or of imprisonment for life or of imprisonment for a term exceeding ten years. Chief Judicial / Chief Metropolitan Magistrate To award any sentence authorised by law except a sentence of death or of imprisonment for life or of imprisonment for a term exceeding seven years Judicial Magistrates of Class I / Metropolitan Magistrates/ Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrates To award imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to ₹ 10,000/-, or both. Deviating from the CrPC, it has been stated that notwithstanding anything contained in CrPC all offences specified under section 435(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 shall be triable only by the Special Court established for the area in which the registered office of the company in relation to which the offence is committed or where there are more Special Courts than one for such area, by such one of them as may be specified in this behalf by the High Court concerned. A Special Court shall consist of- (a) a single judge holding office as Session Judge or Additional Session Judge, in case of offences punishable under this Act with imprisonment of two years or more; and (b) a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the First Class, in the case of other offences, who shall be appointed by the Central Government with the concurrence of the Chief Justice of the High Court within whose jurisdiction the judge to be appointed is working.