M S ADHIKARI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are applications in revision in which eight accused were convicted of an offence under Section 17(1), Criminal Law Amendent Act of 1908.

(2.) The accused do not dispute that they were members of a procession which was proceeding along a street in Bombay on 16 October. Their case is that the pro-cession was of a religious character and not of a political character.

(3.) The way the case is put against them is that by a notification in the Official Gazette the Akhil Bharat Prabhat Feri Sangh was declared an unlawful association and that one of its objects, as far as I know its only object, was to control processions of a political character which took place in the early mornings and that the procession of which the accused were members was in fact of a political character and that, therefore, the persons taking part in in were assisting the oper-ations of the unlawful association the Akhil Bharat Prabhat Feri Sangh, and those committing an offence under the said section.