Power for certain Criminal Courts to require attendance of prisoner to give evidence or answer to charge

Subject to the provisions of section 39, any Criminal Court may, if it thinks that the evidence of any person confined in any prison within the local limits of its appellate jurisdiction, if it is the High Court, or, if it is not the High Court, then within the local limits of the appellate jurisdiction of the High Court, is material in any matter pending before it, or if a charge of an offence against such person is made or pending, make an order in the form set forth in the first or second schedule, as the case may be, directed to the officer in chage of the prison : Provided that if such Criminal Court is inferior to the Court of a Magistrate of the first class, the order shall be submitted to, and countersigned by, the District Magistrate 1[or the Chief Judicial Magistrate, as the case may be] to whose Court such Criminal Court is subordinate or within the local limits of whose jurisdiction such Criminal Court is situated.