TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1950 (5) TMI 22
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....rovince and is hereinafter referred to as the impugned Act, issued the following order: "Whereas the Chief Commissioner, Delhi, is satisfied that Organizer, an English weekly of Delhi, has been pub- lishing highly objectionable matter constituting a threat to public law and order and that action as is hereinafter mentioned is necessary for the purpose of preventing or combating activities prejudicial to the public safety or the maintenance of public order. Now there more in exercise of the powers conferred by section 7 (1)(c) of the East Punjab Public Safety Act, 1949, as extended to the Delhi Province, I, Shankar Prasad, Chief Commissioner, Delhi, do by this order require you Shri Brij Bhushan, Printer and Publisher and Shri K.R. Halkani, Editor of the aforesaid paper to submit for scrutiny, in duplicate, before publication, till further orders, all communal matter and news and views about Pakistan including photographs and cartoons other than those derived from official sources or supplied by the news agencies, viz., Press Trust of India, United Press of India and United Press of America to the Provincial Press Officer, or in his absence, to Superintend- ent of Press Branc....
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....i, dated the 2nd March, 1950. (1) Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. IV, pp. 151, 152. (2) Romesh Thappar v. The State of Madras, supra p. 594. FAZL ALI J.--The question raised in this case relates to the validity of 'section 7 (1) (c) of the East Punjab Public Safety Act, 1949 (as extended to the Province of Delhi), which runs as follows :- "The Provincial Government or any authority authorised by it in this behalf if satisfied that such action is neces- sary for the purpose of preventing or combating any activity prejudicial to the public safety or the maintenance of public order, may, by order in writing addressed to a print- er, publisher or editor-- * * * * (c) require that any matter relating to a particular subject or class of subjects shall before publication be submitted for scrutiny;" It should be noted that the provisions of sub-clause (c) arc not in general terms but are confined to a "particular subject or class of subjects," and that having regard to the context in which these words are used, they must be connect- ed with "public safety or the maintenance of public order." The petitioners, on whose behalf this provision is ass....
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....urnal, such as has been ordered by the Chief Commissioner in this case, is a restriction on the liberty of the press which is included in the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitu- tion, and the only question which we have therefore to decide is whether clause (2) of article 19 stands in the way of the petitioners. The East Punjab Public Safety Act, 1949, of which sec- tion 7 is a part, was passed by the Provincial Legislature in exercise of the power conferred upon it by section 100 of the Government of India Act, 1935, is read with Entry 1 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to that Act, which includes among other matters "public order." This expression in the general sense may be construed to have reference to the maintenance of what is generally known as law and order in the Province, and this is confirmed by the words which follow it in Entry 1 of List II and which have been put within brackets, viz., "but not including the use of naval, military or air forces or any other armed forces of the Union in aid of the civil power." It is clear that anything which affects public tranquillity within the State or ....
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....ll riot or an affray and other cases where peace is disturbed by, or affects, a small group of persons, 'public unsafety' (or insecurity of the State), will usually be connected with serious internal disorders and such disturbances of public tranquillity as jeopardize the security of the State. In order to understand the scope of the Act, it will be necessary to note that in the Act "maintenance of public order" always occurs in juxtaposition with "public safety", and the Act itself is called "The East Punjab Public Safety Act." The prominence thus given to 'public safety' strongly suggests that the Act was intended to deal with serious cases of public disorder which affect public safety or the security of the State, or cases in which, owing to some kind of emergency or a grave situation having arisen, even public disorders of comparatively small dimensions may have far- reaching effects on the security of the State. It is to be noted that the Act purports to provide "special measures to ensure public safety and maintenance of public order." The words "special measures" are rather important, because they show that t....
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....s as to show that they are closely allied concepts and can be used almost inter- changeably in the context. I think that "public order" may well be paraphrased in the context as public tranquillity and the words "public safety" and "public order" may be read as equivalent to "security of the State" and "public tran- quillity." I will now advert once more to clause (2) of article 19 and state what I consider to be the reason for inserting in it the words "matter which undermines the security of, or tends to overthrow, the State." It is well recognized in all systems of law that the right to freedom of speech and expression or freedom of the press means that any person may write or say what he pleases so long as he does not infringe the law relating to libel or slander or to blasphemous, obscene or seditious words or writings: (see Halsbury's Laws of England, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, page 391). This is prac- tically what has been said in clause (2) of article 19, with this difference only that instead of using the words "law relating to sedition," the framers of the Constitution have used the words mentioned abov....
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....n. They also added :-- "The word 'sedition' does not occur either in section 124A or in the Rule; it is only found as a marginal note to section 124A, and is not an operative part of the section, but merely provides the name by which the crime defined in the section will be known. There can be no justification for restricting the contents of the section by the marginal note. In England there is no statutory definition of sedition; its meaning and content have been laid down in many decisions, some of which are referred to by the Chief Justice, but these decisions are not relevant when you have a statutory definition of that which is termed sedition as we have in the present case. Their Lordships are unable to find anything in the language of either section 124A or the Rule which could suggest that 'the acts or words complained of must either incite to disorder or must be such as to satisfy reasonable men that this is their intention or tendency." The framers of the Constitution must have therefore found themselves face to face with the dilemma as to whether the word "sedition" should be used in article 19 (2) and if it was to be used in what sense....
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....nquillity are those in which no actual force is either employed or displayed, but in which steps are taken tending to cause it. These are the formation of secret societies, seditious conspiracies, libels or words spoken. Under these two heads all offences against the internal public tranquillity of the State may be arranged." This passage brings out two matters with remarkable clarity. It shows firstly that sedition is essentially an offence against public tranquillity and secondly that broadly speaking there are two classes of offences against public tranquillity: (a) those accompanied by violence including disorders which affect tranquillity of a considerable number of persons or an extensive local area, and (b) those not accompanied by violence but tending to cause it, such as seditious utter- ances, seditious conspiracies, etc. Both these classes of offences are such as will undermine the security of the State or tend to overthrow it if left unchecked, and, as I have tried to point out, there is a good deal of authorita- tive opinion in favour of the view that the gravity ascribed to sedition is due to the fact that it tends to seriously affect the tranquillity and secur....