TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1953 (8) TMI 24
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.... No. 36/53: Shri M. V. Rajwade v. Shri Abhilas Chandra. No. 37/53: Shri M. V. Rajwade v. Dr. N. B. Khare and others No. 38/53: Shri M. V. Rajwade v. Swami K. N. Sokhta and another. No. 39/53: Shri M. V. Rajwade v. Shri R. K. Shukla and others No. 50/53: Shri M. V. Rajwade v. Thakur Pyarelal Singh and another. No. 48/53: In re Shri Ramgopal Maheshwari and Anr.. 2. Shri M. V. Rajwade, I.A.S., who is the Petitioner in the first six cases is the Deputy Commissioner, Durg. The last case was registered on a petition filed by the Deputy Registrar, High Court of Judicature at Nagpur. These petitions were filed under Section 3 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1952, for taking action against the alleged contemners in respect of certain publications. 3. Respondents in these cases are the authors and/or publishers of the impugned articles. (A) The authors concerned are- (1) Dr. S. M. Hasan, Ex-Minister of the State, Nagpur. (Respondent 1 in M. Cr. C. 35/53). ....
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....the Tahsil building, the Police opened fire on a mob, as a result of which 5 persons died and several persons were injured. The Government of Madhya Pradesh accordingly appointed a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act. 1952, with the Honourable Shri Justice B. K. Choudhuri of the Nagpur High Court as the sole member. A notification to that effect was published in the Madhya Pradesh Gazette, Extraordinary, dated the 14th January 1953. The Commission was asked to enquire and report whether- (i) the firing was justified; (ii) excessive force was used; and (iii) after the firing adequate action was taken to maintain peace and order, to prevent recrudescence of trouble and to give adequate medical and other aid to the injured. Government were also pleased to direct that "all the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, shall apply to the proceedings of the Commission." 5. The impugned publications refer to the Police action of the 9th January 1953 and to the appointment of the Commission. The details of the publications, briefly are these ....
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.... accompanied him, to attend to the injured persons. (3) M. Cr. C. 37 of 1953-This relates to the publication of a resolution of the Executive Committee of the Civil Liberties Union, which was passed in an extraordinary meeting held on the 2nd February, 1953, under the presidentship of Dr. N. B. Khare. The resolution was published in the issue of "Hitavada", dated the 3rd February 1953 and of "Nagpur Times", dated the 5th February 1953. It was stated in the resolution that from all accounts this Union has come to the view that the shooting to death of Ramsir Bai by a Sub-Inspector of Police at point blank range is an incident entirely unconnected with, and independent of the firing episode at Chhuikhadan and amounts to a deliberate man-slaughter. (4) M. Cr. C. 38 of 1953-This relates to an article published in the issue of "Nayakhun", dated the 16th January 1953, under the head lines "Chhuikhadan firing the climax of Congress Ministry's hostile attitude towards the public". In this article the firing at Chhuikhadan has been compared with that at Jaliyanwala Bagh and has be....
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....s the chest of a "young sister". It was also alleged that several persons who were witnessing the scene from a distance and "some mothers, sisters and persons" who were engrossed in their "respective* works" were all "marked as targets of shots", and that "the officers came running, leaving the injured persons to their fate". The incident has been described as "inhuman massacre" and as "murderers playing Holi thus shamelessly with the blood of innocent mothers and sisters. 6. Before we take up other points urged in these cases, we shall first dispose of an argument that Shri C. B. Parakh, learned Counsel for Dr. S. M. Hasan, addressed to us regarding the validity of the appointment of Shri Justice B. K. Choudhuri on the Commission of Inquiry. It was contended that his appointment was 'ultra vires' of the Constitution of India, and, therefore, as the Commission of Inquiry was not validly constituted, the writings cannot amount to contempt of Court. The question of the validity of Shri Justice B. K. Choudhuri's appointment was already raised and decided in - 'Samaruram Holiram v. B. K. Choudhuri', AIR 1953 Nag 331 (A) by a Division Bench of the High Court, to w....
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....s; (f) any other matter which may be prescribed. 5. (4) The Commission shall be deemed to be a civil Court and when any offence as is described in Section 175, Section 178, Section 179, Section 180 or Section 228 of the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) is committed in the view or presence of the Commission, the Commission may. after recording the facts constituting the offence and the statement of the accused as provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act v. of 1898), forward the case to a Magistrate having jurisdiction to try the same and the Magistrate to whom any such case is forwarded shall proceed to hear the complaint against the accused as if the case had been forwarded to him under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. (5) Any proceedings before the Commission shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of Sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860)." It would appear from Section 4 that it only clothes the Commission with certain powers of a Civil Cou....
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....ntecedent history of Order 21, Rule 53 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and referred to Clause (1) (b) (ii) of the said rule and to Sub-section (2) of Section 19 of the Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, which gave right to the holder of the attached decree to intervene in execution proceedings. This, however, was adverted to only as an additional ground and does not affect the question of interpretation. The purpose for which the fiction has been created is. therefore, to be gathered from what follows after the words which create the fiction. 10. Applying this test to the instant case, it would appear that the purpose for which the fiction is created in Sub-section (4) of Section 5 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, is to be inferred from the words that follow the expression "the Commission shall be deemed to be a civil Court." It would not be correct to contend that the above expression is full and complete in itself and what follows it only denotes the limitation on the full-fledged status and powers of a civil Court that the Commission would otherwise have possessed. If that was the intention of the Legislature, the sentence would have been completed after the wor....
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....thority. 12. An enquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, on the other hand, is of wholly different character. There is no accuser, no accused and no specific charges for trial; nor is the Government, under the law, required to pronounce, one way or the other, on the findings of the Commission. 'In re Maharaja Madhava Singh', 32 Cal 1 (PC) (D), was a case of the Commissioners appointed by the Viceroy and Governor-General in Council for the purpose of enquiring into the truth of a certain imputation against the Maharajah, in which their Lordships of the Privy Council observed: It is sufficient to say that the Commission in question was one appointed by the Viceroy himself for the information of his own mind, in order that he should not act in his political and sovereign character otherwise than in accordance with the dictates of justice and equity, and was not in any sense a Court, or, if a Court, was not a Court from which an appeal lies to His Majesty in Council. The 'ratio decidendi' in this case was that the Commission was not a Court. So far as the question regarding the maintainability of an appeal to His Majesty in C....
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....#39;actor', 'reus' and 'judex': the 'actor' or Plaintiff, who complains of an injury done; the 'reus' or Defendant, who is called upon to make satisfaction for it; and the 'judex' or judicial power, which is to examine the truth of the fact, and to determine the law arising upon that fact, and if any injury appears to have been done, to ascertain, and by its officers to apply, the remedy. In - 'Mahabaleswarappa v. Gopalaswami',: AIR 1935 Mad 673 (E), Curgenven J., after reviewing several authorities, observed: To summarise the effect of these decisions it would seem that we have to look, not to the source of a tribunal's authority, or to any peculiarity in the method adopted of creating it (though it is undoubtedly a consideration that it derives its powers mediately or immediately from the Crown) but to the general character of its powers and activities. If it has power to regulate 'legal rights by the delivery of definitive judgments', and to enforce its orders by legal sanctions, and if its procedure is judicial in character in such matters as the taking of evidence and the administrat....
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....matter decided by the tribunal should constitute a judgment which is either definitive in itself or, as contemplated by the Indian Penal Code, would be definitive if confirmed by some other authority. Judged on this standard, we have no hesitation in holding that the Commission. presided over by the Honourable Shri Justice B. K. Choudhuri, was not a Court within the meaning of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1952. 16. In the view we have taken, we need not consider the further questions, viz., whether the Commission was subordinate to the High Court within the meaning of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1952, and whether the publications are indictable as contempt or privileged under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. We may only mention that the meaning of the words "subordinate to the High Court" has been considered in - 'Satdeo v. Baba Raghav Das (cit. sup.) (H)' and the other question has been the subject of decision in - 'Lakhan Singh v. Balbir Singh', AIR 1953 All 342 (I) with which, as at present advised, we are in respectful agreement. 17. We would like to mention that we are alive to the duty of the Press and the public men towards the people. At the sam....