GOPAL VINAYAK GODSE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY these petitions, the author and publisher of a book called "gandhi-hatya Ani Mee" (Gandhi-assassination And I) challenge an order of forfeiture passed by the Delhi Administration under Section 99a of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Criminal Application No. 332 of 1968 is filed by the author Gopal Vinayak Godse, while Criminal Application 333 of 1968 is filed by the publisher, Gana-pati Vasudeo Behere who runs a publishing house called 'asmita Prakashan'. The book is written in Marathi and was printed and published in Poona.

(2.) THE 1st Respondent to the petitions is the Union of India which is joined, presumably because the constitutionality of Section 99a of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Section 153a of the Indian Penal Code is challenged. No relief as such is claimed against the 1st Respondent. The 2nd Respondent is the Delhi Administration which passed the impugned order of forfeiture on the 26th September, 1968 in supersession of an earlier order dated the 6th December, 1967. The 3rd Respondent is the State of Maharashtra which republished in its Gazettes of the 1st February, 1968 and the 17th October, 1968, the notifications of the 2nd Respondent dated the 6th December 1967 and the 26th September, 1968 respectively. The 4th Respondent is the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Poona, who issued a search warrant on the 25th January, 1968 authorising a Sub-Inspector of Police in Poona to enter the premises of 'asmita Prakashan' and seize copies of the book, on the ground that the book contained matter which promoted feelings of enmity and hatred between Hindus and Muslims. The 5th Respondent is the Commissioner of Police, Poona, whose subordinate, a Sub-Inspector- of Police, seized one copy of the book from the residence of the author and two copies from the office of the 'asmita Prakashan'. The relief claimed against Respondents 3 to 5 is that they should be restrained from enforcing the order of forfeiture passed by the 2nd Respondent. The relief claimed against the 3rd Respondent is that the orders republished in its Gazettes should be declared to be illegal.

(3.) THE petitions raise common questions of fact and law and can be conveniently disposed of by a common judgment. For a proper appreciation of the questions raised before us it is necessary to state the following facts. Some of them are well-known facts of history.