V.G. ROW Vs. STATE OF MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petn. under Article 226, Const. Ind. for the issue of a writ of certiorari for calling the records and quashing the order of the State of Madras in G. O. No. Ms. 1517 Public General dated 10 -3 -1950 declaring under Section 16, Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, the People's Education Society as an unlawful assocn. The petnr. is the General Secretary of the People's Education Society registered in November 1947 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI [21] of 1860), and is also a barrister -at -law and an advocate of this Court and the Supreme Ct.

(2.) THE objects of the Society as stated in the affidavit of the petnr. are among others

(3.) ON behalf of the resp. the Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of Madras filed a counter affidavit in which it is asserted that the real objects of the society were not those contained in its Memo. of Assocn. but it was intended really to be a propaganda organisation of the Madras branch of the Communist Party and was formed by the leading Communists of Madras, the first Secretary of the Assocn. being Mr. M. R. Venkataraman, who was also Secretary of the Madras Committee of the Communist Party of India. It is admitted by the Deputy Secretary in the counter affidavit that the assocn. had ceased to function from March 1949 as all the prominent communists had either been detained or gone underground. The assocn. owns a house, No. 4, Rundall's Road, Vepery, which was purchased for a sum of Rs. 55,000 in or about 29 -11 -1947. The Society placed an order for the purchase of rotary printing press which arrived in Madras on 5 -2 -1948 but with some parts missing and was taken delivery of by the petnr. and M.R. Venkataraman on 5 -2 -1948. The press was thereafter sold by the petnr. to one Sadanand on 25 -4 -1949. Though the Society was not in a position to function according to the allegations in the counter affidavit, the petnr. as its joint Secretary continues to collect the rent from the premises. It is claimed in the counter affidavit that the order of Govt. of 10 -3 -1960 declaring the said assocn. to be an unlawful assoen. within the meaning of Section 16, Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, was perfectly justified in the circumstances stated in it.