SHREEDHAR MAHADEO PARANJAPE Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 20th March 1949 the applicant was arrested by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Indore City, by the order of the District Magistrate, Indore District, made Under Section 3 (2),maintenance of Public Order Act (vil [7] of 1949 ). On 24th March were communicated to the applicant the grounds on which the order had been made against him as required by S. 5 of the Act. The grounds as furnished to the accused were as follows:

(2.) THE petitioner was heard on 8th April 1949 and at the hearing the Public Prosecutor read out to the Court from a file in the custody of the District Magistrate an application dated 20th March 1949 made by Mr. Dube the Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department asking for the detention of the applicant. He also read out the statement made on oath by Mr. Dube and the order made thereon by the District Magistrate. After the close of the arguments the original application, the statement made by Mr. Dube and the order Were removed from the file of the District Magistrate and were submitted with an application to this Court by the Public Prosecutor for being received in evidence. In the statement made by Mr. Dube and recorded by the District Magistrate be stated that the statement made by Nathooram Godse (in the well known trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi presumably) had been proscribed by the Government of India and that the copies of this statement had been distributed by the petitioner to others and this was likely to affect the maintenance of public peace. In a written statement filed in the Court on 3rd April 1949 the petitioner submitted that possession and circulation of Nathooram Godse's statement were not prohibited in Mud by a Bharat and was not an offence. It was not circulated by this petitioner but that he had five Copies of the statement which he gave to some of his friends.

(3.) THESE are the brief facts of the case. I may say at once that what purported to be grounds Under Section 5, Maintenance of Public Order Act and which were communicated to the petitioner on 24th March are no grounds at all. They are mere generalisations stating the effects which are likely to be produced on public peace, produced by what acts of the petitioner is not stated therein. The grounds for making an order under the section means the acts or consent (conduct?) of a person for which he can be held responsible as affecting the public peace. No such act of the petitioner was brought to his notice by this communication made to him. It was probably for this reason, on better advice tendered, that the District Magistrate made a second communication, to the petitioner on 2nd April. This also Buffers from the same defect except in one instance. In this communication the petitioner is definitely informed, that he himself was in possession of the statement made by Nathooram Godse and that he had distributed copies of this statement to other persona. This is a definite act which furnished one ground at least, to the District Magistrate for making the order in question. This fact is admitted by the petitioner himself. The learned Counsel for the petitioner raised two objections to this, as being insufficient for the detention of the petitioner. The first was that the District Magistrate who made the order of detention was succeeded by another on or before 24th March when the first communication of grounds for the detention was made by him to the petitioner and it was this Magistrate who made the second communication on 2nd April 1949. He was not, therefore; the per-son who could know the grounds on which the order of detention had been made by his predecessor in office. I am unable to accept this contention as good. There is on the record the application of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, his statement made to the District Magistrate and the order made thereon on 20th March 1949. From this office record the succeeding District Magistrate should be able to ascertain the grounds on which the order was made and he was in a position to communicate the grounds on which the order was made.