STATE Vs. ABDULLAH KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the State against a judgment and order of the City magistrate, Kotah, dated the 28th February, 1959, in a case under section 14 of the Foreigners Act (Act 31 of 1946 hereinafter called the "act") by which he has acquitted the accused.

(2.) THE material facts are these: it is alleged that the accused is a citizen of Afganistan and that under a passport from that Government and a visa obtained in consequence thereof, the accused came to India on the 19/20th August, 1955. He was originally permitted to stay in India for six months and this permission seems to have been subsequently extended from time to time until the 13th of August, 1957. For certain reasons however which are not disclosed on the record, the Government of India, by its letter dated the 2nd of August, 1956, (Ex. P. 3) to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan, required that the accused be served with a notice to wind up his business and to leave India within a period of six months from the date of its service on him, and that in case he failed to do so, he be prosecuted according to law. The case for the prosecution then is that the accused was served with a notice (Ex. P-l) to quit India by the Superintendent of Police, Kotah, which is said to have been served on the accused on 25th of September, 1956. According to this, the accused must have left India by the 25th of march, 1957, but he failed to do so. Consequently, the accused was charge-sheeted for an offence under section 14 of the Act in the Court of the City Magistrate, Kotah.

(3.) THE defence of the- accused put briefly, was that he was a citizen of Afganistan as well as India and that he has been living in both countries. He further pleaded in this connection that his father had been living in India for a period of about forty years and that he also had been living here for the last twenty-six years preceding the filing of the case against him and that he was also registered as a voter on the electoral rolls of this country. It is further important to note that according to the accused he was born in Afganistan and that he had left India sometime in 1949 under some kind of permit, the particulars of which, he has not disclosed, and that he had returned therefrom sometime in 1951, and similarly, he had again gone to afganistan in 1954 and last came to India in 1955 and that he has throughout been coming and going like this. A definite question was put to the accus ed whether he had come back from Afganistan under a passport in 1955 and having lost the same he had obtained a duplicate copy thereof, and the accused admitted that that was so. A further question was put to him whether the accused had obtained a registration certificate (Ex. P-5) under the Registration of Foreigners rules 1939 on the 1st of June, 1956, and curiously enough, his reply was that he did not remember if he had obtained any such certificate. It may be noted that in this certificate the accused had mentioned bis nationality as "afghan", and his place of birth as "rained Khal, District Gazni", which is in Afganistan, and in column No. 6 headed as "previous nationality ("if any)", he made no statement whatsoever. He mentioned the purpose of his visiting India as "money lending".