RANJIT D UDESHI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant is one of fourt partners of a firm which owns a book-stall in Bombay. He was prosecuted along with the other partners under section 292, Indian Penal Code. All the facts necessary for our purpose appear from the simple charge with two counts which was framed against them. It reads :

(2.) It is convenient to set out S. 292 of the Indian Penal Code at this stage :

(3.) To prove the requirements of the section the prosecution examined two witnesses. One was the test purchaser named in the charge and the other an Inspector of the Vigilance Department. These witnesses proved possession and sale of the book which facts are not denied. The Inspector in his testimony also offered his reasons for considering the book to be obscene. On behalf of the accused Mr. Mulkraj Anand, a writer and Art critic gave evidence and in a detailed analysis of the novel, he sought to establish that in spite of its apparent indelicate theme and the candidates of its delineation and diction, the novel was a work of considerable literary merit and a classic and not obscene. The question does not altogether depend on oral evidence because the offending novel and the portions which are the subject of the charge must be judged of by the court, in the light of Section 292, Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the Constitution. This raises two broad and independent issues of law - the validity of Section 292, Indian Penal Code and the proper interpretation of the section and its application to the offending novel.