LEGAL REMEMBRANCER Vs. ATUL CHANDRA GHOSE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There is a rule issued on the application of the Legal Remembrancer representing the State of Bihar against the opposite party calling upon them to show cause why a proceeding in contempt of Court should not be drawn up against them. Opposite party No. 1, Shri Atul Chandra Ghosh, is the editor of a weekly newspaper or a pamphlet called "Mukti" issued in Bengali from Purulia, and opposite party No. 2, Shri Jagabandhu Bhattacharjee, is the printer and publisher of that paper. The rule is in respect of an editorial headed "Desh Sevar Puraskar" published in the issue of the said paper dated 7-9-1953.

(2.) The editorial in question came to be written and published in the following circumstances. Last year, there was a proceeding under Section 144, Criminal P.C. before a Sub-divisional Magistrate, and an article appeared in the paper "Mukti" in respect of this proceeding in its issue dated 28-1-1953. The matter was brought to the notice of the High Court at the instance of the Legal Remembrancer of the State of Bihar, and this Court issued a rule upon the then editor of the paper, who was Shri Bibhuti Bhusan Das Gupta, the then printer and publisher, who was Shri Ram Chandra Adhikari, and the writer of the article, who was Shri Arun Chandra Ghosh. The case was numbered as Original Criminal Misc. Case No. 8 of 1953 (A), and judgment was delivered on 1-9-1953, 'Legal Remembrancer, Bihar v. Bibhuti Bhushan', AIR 1954 Pat 203 (A), convicting those three men and sentencing them to pay certain fines, and, in default, to undergo three months' simple imprisonment. The convicted men refused to pay the fines, and courted imprisonment. Accordingly, they were sent to prison. On the same date, an oral application was made for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against that judgment and order, and the application was rejected. There was then an application filed in the Supreme Court for special leave to appeal; but that application was also rejected with a modification in the sentence imposed in default of payment of the fines.

(3.) The editorial, which is the subject-matter of the present proceeding, bore the caption, as I have already said, "Desh Sevar Puraskar", and it commented upon the case which was decided by this Court on 1-9-1953, in -- 'Original Criminal Misc. Case No. 8 of 1953 (Pat) (A)', and the present rule was issued at the instance, again, of the Legal Remembrancer of Bihar. The learned Standing Counsel, who has appeared in support of this rule, has contended that the editorial in question clearly imputes motives on the part of the High Court in pending the opposite party in the previous case to Jail and it further alleges that the High Court, in coming to its decision, had taken extraneous matters into consideration. It was, therefore argued that the editorial tended to bring the authority of the High Court into contempt. It was further argued that the aforesaid editorial attributes improper motives to the Judges of this Court and not only it transgresses the limits of fair and 'bona fide' criticism but has a clear tendency to affect the dignity and prestige of the Court, and, therefore, amounts to a gross contempt of this Court.