Judicial Magistrate
Tries the less grave criminal offences and deals with remand and interim criminal matters.
The forum
Judicial Magistrates try the less serious criminal cases and deal with remand, bail in the matters within their powers, and the early stages of a criminal case. They sit throughout a district. Remand moves fastest of anything in a practice: a person in custody is produced at short intervals, and the next date is often days away rather than weeks.
Where it sits
This court sits in every district, and in most tehsils. The cities below are the ones with the rest of the court structure around them, but a matter here can be anywhere in the country — which is why CaseMate carries every city and tehsil rather than a short list.
What a firm has to track
Criminal work here moves in days, not months, and a date missed can cost a client their liberty. This is the forum where recording the outcome before leaving the building stops being a nicety. This is also where a firm most often covers for somebody at short notice, which puts the weight on the record being complete enough for a colleague to pick up — the case number, the court, what happened last time, and what is expected this time.
The date the court gives is a fact. Whoever is standing there records it in CaseMate before they leave the building, and the office acknowledges it — it does not wait to be approved.
The firm decides who goes to the next hearing, against the hearing itself. A matter at a distant bench is a travel arrangement, not a line in a list.
Every previous date, its outcome and the note taken at the time — so a partner can be answered without opening the file.
A hearing in the past with nothing recorded against it is the one thing a diary must never hide. CaseMate lists them separately.
Other courts in the same work
Start with today's list.
Set your firm up in a couple of minutes, enter the cases you are running this week, and let your associates report from court.