Sulaiman, C.J.—The office has brought it to my notice that there are certain judgments in criminal cases delivered by the late Mr. Justice L.M. Banerji in open Court and taken down by his judgment-writer and which, owing to his death remained unsigned after having been faired out. Notes were made by the bench reader of the disposal of the case, and in some of these the learned Judge actually signed the release warrants. It is quite clear that Section 366,which requires that the judgment of every trial in any criminal Court of original jurisdiction shall be pronounced in open Court and Section 367 which provides that the written judgment should be dated and signed by the presiding officer in open court, do not apply to a High Court. Charter 26 applies to judgments delivered by criminal courts of originial jurisdiction. Section 424 of the Act makes the rules contained in Chap. 26 as to the judgments of criminal courts of original jurisdiction applicable to judgments of any appellate court "other than a High Court." There is therefore, no provision which requires that the High Court, after pronouncing a judgment in open court, should date and sign the same. As a matter of fact, all that Section 425 requires is that the judgment should be certified to the court below.

2. The criminal appeals which were disposed of by the late Mr. Justice Banerji by the delivery of judgments in open Court and which were taken down by his judgment-writer must be deemed to have been finally disposed of by him; the omission to intial the fair copy of: the judgments is in no way a serious defect. For the purpose of certifying the judgments to the courts below it will be convenient for them to be put, up before the Chief Justice for intialling them so that they may be certified.