Law: Criminal Procedure Code, 1898

Section: Ss. 288 & 208(2)

Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898), Ss. 288 & 208(2)-State ments before committing Magistrate transferred to Sessions file Evidentiary, value varies according to facts and circumstances of case-Statements not cross-examined in Magistrate's Court because of failure to engage counsel due to short notice-Magistrate declining to recall witnesses for cross-examination when counsel engaged Statements, held, "suffer from serious defect" Commitment quashed-Conviction set aside-Re-trial not ordered in circumstances of case-Courts to be "liberal" in allowing opportunity of cross examination.   JUDGMENT   SATJAD AHMED, J.-The appellant Ranjah has been found guilty for the murder of his mother-in-law Mst. Sharaf Elabi and sentenced to transportation for life.   The murder took place on the night between the 7th and 8th of December 1960 inthe house of the deceased in village Khatan. Mst. Nur Sain P. W. a daughter of the deceased, was married to the appellant some five years back. They lived together in the appel lant's house in village Mangla Naiwala where they were also joined by P. W. Muhammad Hussain, a brother of Mst. Nur Sain, who assisted the appellant in the cultivation of his fields. Two days before the murder of Mst. Sharaf Elahi, Muhammad Hussain and Mst. Nur Sain left the appellant's house in his absence and came over to village Khatan. The appellant followed them the next day and in the evening he asked the deceased to send his wife with him. She replied that he could take her the following morning he appellant considered this as an evasive reply and slapped her. At about 10 p.m. the same night, while the appellant was engaged in a talk with the deceased in her but in the company of Mst. Nur Sain and Muhammad Hussain P. Ws., the appellant again started a quarrel with the deceased and told her that she was not sending his wife with him on purpose as she was anxious to secure her divorce. Mst. Sharaf Elahi rebuked him for this loose talk about the divorce on which the appellant took out his pistol Exh. P. 7 from the fold of his chadar and shot at the deceased, causing her death.   The occurrence was reported…