NEELAM MAHAJAN SINGH Vs. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Men have always been curious about the lives of other people. It is probably for. this reason that biographical narratives of real lives, lived in a specific time and place and which provide an insight into the real world of another person have always fascinated readers. In a way such writings enable us to try on another identity and thereby broaden our own. Khushwant Singh who gave us the monumental History of the Sikhs, contributed to the Indian Section of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, translated some of the Sikh scriptures and wrote that unforgettable Train to Pakistan, has brought out "The Women and Men in my life" in which he has penned certain life sketches literally showing us individuals which by and large cannot be crammed into conventional cultural categories. His women, in particular, have a formidable presence. They are not the kind who would scurry to hide in chicken droppings. Despite hazards, tests and tribulations, they generally come out unvanquished. And, with a deft pen, he describes how each of his woman's world was made, and what happened to her in the making or unmaking of it and on way to such description he displaces Freud's condescending notion that a woman does not develop beyond the age of thirty, remaining permanently childish into old age. However, he does not seem to be that lucky with men in his life; this, at least, is the impression which one gathers. Is it for this reason that on the cover of the book one finds only women around him?

(2.) A little while from now, I will revert to some of the women and men in his life. I will have to, since Neelam Mahajan Singh feels that some of the passages in the book have the tendency to deprave the character of the persons in whose hands the book is likely to fall and that the writer had discussed sex in a manner which, according to her, is offensive to public decency and morality and likely to "pander to lascivious prurient or sexually precocious mind." She also feels that Khushwant Singh has played with the "'Chastity and dignity" of some of the persons who are dead. Hence this writ petition for banning of the book, seizure of its remaining print order and for direction to the Commissioner of Police for registration of case under sections 292, 509 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) The petitioner tells us that she had purchased the book "in a routine manner" and after going through the same had felt "agast (sic) and shocked at the cheap vulgar and obscene writings about the dead persons" hurting thereby her "sensitivities as a woman". She thus reminds us of that excellent saying of Solon' and worthy of the wisest of the Seven, who, when he was asked "what would rid the world of injuries? - "If the bystanders", says he "would have the same resentment with those that suffer the wrong."(Old and True. An Extemporary Anthology 1941-1943 English Universities Press.]