STATE Vs. MADAN MOHAN DEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by a Presidency Magistrate under Section 432(2), Criminal P. C. for a decision by this Court as to the validity of Railway Stores (Unlawful possession) Ordinance, 1944 (Ordinance 19 of 1944). The questions propounded by the learned Magistrate are as follows:

(2.) In our view, successive enactments, as we shall presently show, kept alive the Ordinance which is still in force as part of the law of the land. The genesis of the Ordinances which followed the outbreak of the last war was Section 72. Schedule 9, Government of India Act, 1935. Section 72 was in these terms:

(3.) The confusion created by the provisions of this section was resolved by the decisions of the Federal Court of India in - 'J.K. Gas Plant Manufacturing Co., (Rampur) Ltd. v. Emperor', AIR 1947 FC 38 (A). Delivering the judgment of the Court, Spens, C. J. observed: