BIR BHADRA PRATAP SINGH Vs. D M AZAMGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution praying for a writ of habeas corpus or any other appropriate writ or order.

(2.) The circumstances in which this petition arose were these: The petitioner alleged that he was an Advocate of this Court practising at Azamgarh and that the petitioner did some work of a newspaper correspondent in an honorary capacity being a representative of a Hindi Daily named "Bharat" which is simultaneously published from Banaras and Allahabad.

(3.) That on the 2nd of September. 1958, the petitioner had gpne to the courts situate in the compound of the Collectorate, Azamgarh, in connection with his professional work when a procession of the Communist Party reached the compound of the Collectorate shouting slogans and that hearing these slogans the petitioner went to that place: that soon after a lathi charge was made by the police on the processionists who had at the time of the lathi charge collected in front of the Court of the District Magistrate. The petitioner says that he was present there in order to enable him to send news of this incident to the newspaper the honorary representative of which he was. The petitioner further alleged that soon after the lathi charge the District Magistrate sent for the petitioner in his retiring room where the Superintendent of Police of Azamgarh R. N. Sinha was also present and that these two officials gave to the petitioner an official version of the incident and "threatened the petitioner not to fiend any news contrary to the official version".