HABIJUDDIN Vs. STATE,

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE four references arise out of four Criminal cases Nos. C. Rule 68, 70, 66 and 67 of 1959 in which the first class Magistrate, Kamalpur sentenced the 4 accused persons (one in each case) under rule 6(a) of the Indian Passport Rules and sentenced each of them to a fine of Rs. 25/ -. As the facts and the prosecution evidence in the four cases are more or less similar and as the Sessions Judge has made the references on the same ground in all the cases, I am dealing with them in one common order.

(2.) THE two constables Sona Sinha and Nepal Sarker arrested the 4 persons concerned in these references on 5.6.1959 at Muktabil on the ground that they were Pakistanis and produced them before Shri B. B. Paul the Officer -in -charge of Kamalpur Police station. The said officer is said to have interrogated them and found that they were Pakistanis who could not produce any valid travel documents. He submitted reports for the prosecution of the 4 persons under Rule 6(a) of the Indian Passport Rules and the Sub -divisional Magistrate, Kamalpur took cognisance of the four cases on 5.6.1959 itself. In all the four cases, the plea of the accused persons was that they were Indian nationals living in India for very many years and that they have not contravened any provisions of the Indian Passport Rules. They examined very many witnesses in each of the cases to support their defence that they were Indian nationals.

(3.) THE learned Magistrate who dealt with the four cases found that there was no direct evidence in any of the cases to show when the accused persons actually entered India. The Magistrate was not satisfied from the defence evidence that they were Indian nationals and he held that they must have entered India after the introduction of the Passport Rules in 1952 without Passports. Accordingly, he convicted the 4 accused persons in the four cases to a fine of Rs. 25/ - each.