DEVARAJIAH Vs. BPADMANNA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has lodged a complaint with the City Magistrate, Bangalore, against the Respondent alleging that the latter had issued a printed pamphlet according to the contents of which the complainant had no right to worship or enter into any Jain temple and the Complainant should be prevented from entering such places of public worship belonging to the Jain community and offering prayers and religious services in those places. He also alleged that the accused was encouraging untouchability by instigating the Jains not to have social or religious intercourse with others of the same religion like the Complainant. According to the Complainant, the accused has contravened Sections 3, 7 and 10 of the Untouchability Offences (1955) Act by such conduct and he prays that the matter be enquired into and that the accused be punished according to law. The learned Magistrate took the case on file in respect of an offence under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code. The complainant went up in revision to this Court. The Revision Petition was dismissed with the observation that the Petitioner might urge before the learned Magistrate his contention that the case should be registered for offences under the Untouchability Offences Act, 1955, and obtain a decision. The learned Magistrate after hearing arguments made an order holding that no offence under that Act was disclosed. This petition is directed against that order.

(2.) If the pamphlet is left out of account, there is no specific averment about the allegation against the accused that he was instigating the members of the Jain community to practise untouchability. The pamphlet itself consists of twelve closely printed pages and appears generally to deal with the way in which three temples of the Jain community are being managed end the way in which the Jain Mathadhipathies associated with those temples are functioning. The substance of the accused's grievance appears to be that the rigid rules of Jaina religion & practice are being infringed, that heterodoxy is being encouraged & that non-Jains are admitted to food and worship contrary to the tenets and practice of Jain religion. There is also a narration of a particular incident alleged to have occurred on 24-3-1955 in a Jain temple in Bangalore. There are also suggestions in regard to the action to be taken for the general benefit of the Jain community. So far as the present Complainant is concerned, the only pan of the pamphlet which refers to him says that he and two other persons were not Jains and were not fit to associate themselves with any Jain temple or the Jain community.

(3.) It is urged by the learned Advocate for the petitioner that the tendency of the pamphlet is to promote untouchability in the Jain community by suggesting that particular persons who were not conducting themselves in a manner that commended itself to the Complainant should be excluded from worship, religious services, food etc. The learned Magistrate has taken the view that the provisions of the Act apply only in the context of untouchability practised by imposing disqualifications and disabilities on a person by reason of his birth.