The order concerns a case involving Sunil Ravindra Patil, who was arrested on charges of extortion by the MRA Marg police under sections 387, 506 (II), 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 3 and 25 of Arms Act on November 5. Patil was produced before the Ballard Pier Metropolitan Magistrate on November 6 and remanded till November 12. Since the courts were closed for Diwali vacations, the accused was produced before the holiday court at the Esplanade Court, which was being presided over by Holambe-Patil that day.

Holambe-Patil, after considering the remand application made by the police concerning Patil, passed an order directing police sub-inspector(PSI) Shrikant Desai to produce the accused before the Special Court at the Sessions Court on November 15. Bhangale has found Holambe-Patil's order ``improper'' because the police had applied sections of the IPC to Patil's case and because no provisions of any special act or the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime (MCOC) Act were applied. The special court deals mostly with cases wherein provisions of some special act or of the MCOC are applied.

Public Prosecutors at the Sessions Court held that the said case was ``well under Holambe-Patil's jurisdiction'' and that ``directing the case to the special court was quite uncalled for''. ``The Special Court simply has no jurisdiction over the matter,'' Chief Public Prosecutor, D G Paranjpe, told Express Newsline.

Besides producing Patil before the special court as per Holambe-Patil's order, PSI Desai on Monday filed an application with Bhangale, who also presides over the special court, saying that the ``...Learned Magistrate (Holambe-Patil) should havepassed an order under section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)''.

``The Learned Magistrate has passed a patently illegal order directing that the accused be produced before this court, without the police having applied the provisions of MCOC Act or any other special act,'' says the application.

``It is prayed that this court may please issue necessary directions and/or instructions to the Learned Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 19th court to pass appropriate order as per the provisions under section 167 of CrPC,'' reads the police application. ``The Learned Magistrate cannot direct the police to apply any provision of the Law. It is the sole discretion of the executive and the police machinery to apply the provisions and produce the accused before the competent court having jurisdiction to entertain the remand application,'' says the police application.

Bhangale also directed the police to produce the accused before a regular court taking remand on Monday itself.