R. THANGAVELU CHETTIAR Vs. COMMR. OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IT required a lot of courage to have filed this petition for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the order of the Commissioner of Police suspending the licence of the petitioner to keep a lodging house, and the petitioner has been equal to it.

(2.) THE petitioner was granted a licence to run a lodging house in the City and he was running it, while so, there was a raid on his premises on 28th May 1955 by the local police and at that raid it was found that there were 11 girls there and 9 of them were occupying 9 of the rooms in that house each with a male person. The register of arrivals maintained at the premises did not contain the names of the girls but showed bogus names.

(3.) THE argument addressed to me with great strenuousness was that none of the ingredients of this condition were satisfied before the Commissioner passed the order. First, that the petitioner was not harbouring any one of the class of persons mentioned in the condition. His argument was that harbouring meant giving aid, succour or protection to persons fleeing justice and that as the persons who occupied the house at the time of the police raid were not criminals or accused in any crime, there could be no harbouring and further that the persons who were found in the petitioner's premises were not reputed thieves or notorious bad characters.