A fresh Code of Criminal Procedure repealing the earlier Acts on the subject was enacted in 1872. It was enacted apart from the High Court, the Chief Court of the Punjab, and the Judicial Commissioners' Courts in the non- regulation provinces, there should be four grades of Criminal Courts in British India. There were the Court of sessions, the court of magistrate of the first class, the court of magistrate of the second class, and the court of magistrate of the third class. Every province was to be divided into sessions divisions and there was to be a court of Sessions and a Sessions judge for every such division. The local government was empowered to appoint Additional and Joint Sessions judges who were to exercise all the powers of the court but to try such cases only as the local government directed them to try or as the Sessions judge of the division made over to them for trial. The distinction between the three classes of magistrates rested on the kind of sentence they were competent. A magistrate of the first class might sentence up-to the term of two years and impose a fine up to Rs 1,000; a magistrate of second class might imprison up to six months and impose a fine up to Rs 200. The first two might order whipping or include in the imprisonment solitary confinement, but such an order could not be made by a magistrate of a third class. Magistrates of all the three classes were to be appointed by the local government and acted in subordination to the magistrate of the district. The local government could divide a district into divisions and place a magistrate of the first class or second class in charge of a division. The Divisional Magistrate was subject to the control of the magistrate of the district, but he, in turn controlled the magistrates in his division. In the non-regulation provinces the local government was empowered to invest the Deputy Commissioner or other chief executive officer of the district with power to try as a magistrate all offences not punishable with death, and to pass sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years. The local government was also authorised to appoint in any district special magistrates, or a Bench of magistrates with the powers of a magistrate of the first, second, and third class.
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