GANESH BALVANT MODAK Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by Ganesh Balvant Modak for revision of the. conviction recorded against, and sentence passed upon him by the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Bombay under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Magistrate has held that the petitioner has been guilty of the offence of attempting to excite feelings of disaffection towards the Government established by law in British India by the sale of copies of a periodical called the Swaraj containing an article headed. "The Etiology of the Bomb in Bengal," which is seditious within the meaning of the section above mentioned.

(2.) This finding of the Magistrate has been assailed before us on two grounds: first, that there has been no publication by the petitioner of the periodical in question, containing the article charged as seditious; and, secondly, that the article itself is not seditious within the meaning of Section 124A of the Indian Indian Penal Code.

(3.) It is to be remarked at the outset that both the question of publication and thequestion the seditious character of the article are questions of fact, which have to be determined on the evidence and by the light of surrounding circumstances. On these questions of fact, the learned Magistrate has recorded his findings with his reasons therefore in his judgment. What we are asked by the learned Counsel for the petitioner to do is to appreciate the evidence and revise the Magistrate's findings of fact. But it has been the settled practice of this Court to refuse to interfere, in the exercise of our revisional jurisdiction, in regard to findings of fact, except on very exceptional grounds, such as a misstatement of evidence by the lower Court or the misconstruction of documents, or the placing by that Court of the onus of proof on the accused contrary to the law of evidence Queen V/s. Shekh Saheb Badrudin 8 B. 197; Queen-Empress V/s. Mahomad Hasan (1886) Urnep. Cr. C. 244; Queen-Empress V/s. Chagan Dayaram 14 B. 331.