NAZIR HUSSAIN Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment and order of Bose J. dated 16-8-1951 dismissing an application for writs in the nature of mandamus. The appellant is at the moment being prosecuted in the Court of the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta for an offence of staying in India longer than a permit which he had been granted permitted him so to stay.

(2.) The defence is that the petitioner is a subject of the Indian Republic and that he is entitled to remain in British India. Further it is said that the statute and rules under which he is being prosecuted can have no application to him whatsoever and further that they are ultra vires the Constitution of India.

(3.) The petitioner therefore moved this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution for a writ or order in the nature of a mandamus calling upon the State of West Bengal not to proceed with this prosecution. The matter came before Bose J. who dismissed the petition holding that there was no force whatsoever in it. From that order the present appeal has been preferred.