A.N.Mulla, J. - (1.) This is a criminal revision filed by head constable Lakshmi Narain who belonged to the armed police. He was sent to jail on the 4th of November, 1957. It seems to us that the applicant along with some other police men wanted to have a redress of certain grievances and the applicant and his companions went on hunger-strike on the 1st of November, 1957 while they were still outside. When the applicant came to the jail, he continued his hunger strike and in spite of repeated attempts made by the jail authorities to persuade him to take food, he refused to do so. The jail authorities warned the applicant repeatedly that this is a major offence against jail discipline and the Superintendent of jail also punished him on some occasions in order to persuade him to give up his hunger-strike. These attempts, however, proved unsuccessful and finally the Superintendent of Jail felt that he could not adequately punish the applicant for this continuous breach of jail rules and discipline and so he submitted a report to the Inspector General of Prisons. The Inspector General of Prisons after perusing the report came to the conclusion that it was a fit case in which the applicant should be prosecuted under Section 52 of the Prisons Act. A complaint was accordingly filed and after a trial before a Magistrate the applicant was convicted under Section 52 of the Prisons Act. The sentence awarded to the applicant was six months' rigorous imprisonment.
(2.) After his conviction the applicant went up in appeal but his appeal was dismissed. He then filed an application of revision before this Court which came before one of us and as it was considered that some important aspects of interpreting the relevant law were involved, it was ordered to be placed before a Divisional Bench of this Court. It has come before us today in pursuance of that reference.
(3.) The provision for prosecuting a prisoner under Section 52 of the Prisons Act, if he goes on hunger strike, is made in paragraph 742 of the Jail Manual under Chapter XXVIII. Paragraph 742 runs as follows : - "Prisoners who go on hunger-strike shall be warned that no request for the redress of any of their alleged grievances shall be considered so long as the strike continues, that hunger-strike is a major jail offence, that a mass hunger-strike amounts to mutiny and that hunger-strikers are liable to be punished either departmentally or by prosecution under Section 52 of the Prisons Act, 1894 (IX of 1894) under which they may be sentenced to imprisonment which may extend to one year. A hunger striker should not ordinarily be prosecuted under the Prisons Act without the previous sanction of the Inspector General." There is another paragraph in the Jail Manual the relevant part of which we quote at this stage. That paragraph is 806 in Chapter XXX of the Jail Manual. "In addition to acts declared to be Prison offences under Section 45 of the Prisons Act, 1894 (IX of 1894), the following acts are forbidden, and every prisoner who wilfully commits any of the following acts shall be deemed to have wilfully disobeyed the regulations of the prison and to have committed a prison offence within the meaning of Sub-section (1) of the above section of the acts : - ..... 17. refusing to eat food or the food prescribed by the prison diet scale." In view of the two paragraphs quoted above, it can not be doubted that in the interests of maintaining discipline in jails the refusal to take food by a prisoner hay been made an offence. One can under-stand why it has been made an offence for if prisoners refused to take food, it is bound to adversely affect the discipline which has to be maintained in jails and jails are not places where people can have their own choice of food or their own choice in other matters. A prisoner on hunger-strike will attract sympathy from other prisoners and this may lead to acts of indiscipline being committed on a mass scale and may even lead to mutiny. This obviously cannot be permitted. We are, therefore, satisfied that the act of going on hunger-strike is an offence within the meaning of paragraph 742 of the Jail Manual and it is punishable under Section 52 of the Prisons Act.;