Quorum defects in Magistrates' trials may be curable, but late participation by an absent member can still vitiate the verdict.

A Magistrates' Bench may proceed if the prescribed quorum is present, but a member who missed material hearings should not take part in final deliberations or judgment. The governing curative rule treats such participation as a procedural irregularity rather than an automatic illegality, yet the result remains vulnerable if the irregularity occasions failure of justice. On the facts discussed, the absent member's re-entry for the final decision created a real likelihood of prejudice, so the conviction was set aside and a retrial ordered.

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Issues: Whether a criminal trial conducted by a Bench of Honorary Magistrates is vitiated when one member is absent on some hearing dates but the remaining members form the quorum and the absent member later rejoins and takes part in the final deliberations and judgment; and whether such non-compliance is a mere irregularity or an illegality causing failure of justice.

Analysis: A Bench duly constituted under the governing provisions may function if the prescribed quorum is present. The saving provision was understood as protecting orders and judgments from invalidity merely because of a change in the constitution of the Bench, but it does not support participation in final decision-making by a member who has not been present throughout the proceedings. Where such a member has missed material hearings and yet joins the final deliberations, the defect is not treated as a direct illegality but as an irregularity within the curative provision dealing with procedural defects. Relief therefore depends on whether the irregularity has occasioned a failure of justice. In the circumstances considered, the participation of the absent member in the final conclusion created a real likelihood of prejudice, and the subsequent assurance of unanimity did not remove that likelihood.

Conclusion: The conviction was set aside and a retrial was directed because the irregularity was held to have caused failure of justice.

Final Conclusion: Only those Magistrates who have been present throughout the proceedings and who constitute the quorum may validly join in the final deliberation, judgment, and signature; participation by a member absent during material parts of the trial can vitiate the result where it occasions prejudice.

Ratio Decidendi: A procedural defect in the composition of a Magistrates' Bench is curable only if it does not cause failure of justice, and a member absent during material hearings should not participate in final deliberations or judgment if that participation creates a likelihood of prejudice.

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