BATHINA RAMAKRISHNA REDDY Vs. STATE OF MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has come up before us on special leave granted by this Court on 23-5-1950 and it is directed against a Judgment of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court dated 10-4-1950, by which the learned Judges found the appellant guilty of contempt of Court and sentenced him to serve simple imprisonment for three months.

(2.) The appellant is the publisher and managing editor of a Telgu weekly known as "Praja Rajyam" which is edited and published at Nellore in the State of Madras. In the issue of the said paper dated 10-2-1949, an article appeared under the caption "Is the Sub-Magistrate. Kovvur corrupt - The purport of the article was that Surya Narayan Murthi, the stationary Sub-Magistrate of Kovvur, was known to the people of the locality to be a bribe taker and to be in the habit of harassing litigants in various ways. He was said to have a broker through whom negotiations in connection with these corrupt practices were carried on. Saveral specific instances were cited of cases tried by that officer, where it was rumoured that he had either taken bribes or had put the parties to undue harassment, because they were obdurate enough to refuse the demands of his broker. The article, which is a short one, concludes with the following paragraph:

(3.) The attention of the State Government being drawn to this article, an application was filed by the Advocate General of Madras before the High Court on 14-11-1949 under S. 2, Contempt of Courts Act (Act XII [12] of (1926) praying that suitable action might be taken against the appellant as well as three other persons, of whom two were respectively the editor and sub-editor of the paper, while the third was the owner of the press where the paper was printed.