Report No. 14

12. Courts of Presidency Magistrates.-

The magisterial work in the city of Calcutta is carried out by the Chief Presidency Magistrate assisted by an Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate, 8 Stipendiary Magistrates and Honorary Magistrates whose number varies from time to time. There are also municipal magistrates who deal with municipal cases. In 1957, in addition to the Stipendiary Magistrates, there were 13 Honorary Magistrates. Out of the 8 Stipendiary Magistrates one is a Deputy Collector. The Stipendiary Presidency Magistrates get the grade pay of Munsifs plus a special pay of Rs. 100 per mensem.

The system of mobile courts obtaining in Madras has been introduced in the city of Calcutta, though not so extensively as in Madras. The Chief Presidency Magistrate who gave evidence before us stated that once a week a Magistrate goes round the city holding Court at different places and that the system had worked well though the percentage of convictions was less. He favoured the extension of the system of Magistrates going in circuits and added that it could not be done on account of dearth of hands.

There has been a considerable increase in the volume of work brought before the courts of Presidency Magistrates as will appear from the Table given below:-

Table 9

	1945		1951		1955		1956
Nature of proceeding	Instituted	Disposed of	Instituted	Disposed of	Instituted	Disposed of	Instituted	Disposed of
Case under the I.P.C.	5073	N.A.	7582	N.A.	6608	N.A.	5753	N.A.
Cases Under the Special and local laws.	69958	74223	133127	33306	123187	127797	150458	130818
In the Courts of Municipal Magistrates	1712	17607	30767	30791	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.	N.A.

The arrears are however not such as to call for particular comment. The Chief Presidency Magistrate told us in his evidence that the Presidency Magistrates "have the cleanest record of all criminal courts in the State." He said also that in case the number of mobile courts was to be increased, the existing strength would not be sufficient to preside over the stationary courts.

The State Government, in consultation with the High Court, has prescribed the qualifications for honorary Magistrates and honorary Presidency Magistrates under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Appointments to the posts of honorary Magistrates are made from amongst the following classes of persons: (1) retired stipendiary Magistrates or judges who are willing to serve in an honorary capacity; (2) former Honorary Magistrates particularly those with a high standard of education and good record of judicial work, and (3) other suitable persons with high educational qualifications and adequate means of livelihood. Ordinarily, a person who is not a graduate is not considered suitable. In the case of women, however, the educational standards are relaxed where they have considerable experience of social work.

A panel of eligible persons is prepared for each district and appointments are made from among persons enlisted in it.

Honorary Magistrates are ordinarily given simple cases, but able and experienced persons are given important cases also. The following Table (Table No. 10) will show that the Honorary Magistrates other than the Honorary Presidency Magistrates have disposed of a substantial amount of work:

Table No. 10

Year	Total Number of cases disposed of by magistrates	Number of cases disposed of by the honorary magistrates out of the total shown in column
1952	1,67,724	20545
1951	1,72,411	25874
1953	1,99,833	11257
1954	2,07,087	15055
1955	2,10,389	14427

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