EMPEROR Vs. BALKRISHNA GOVIND KULKARNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a rule granted at the instance of the Government of Bombay calling upon Balkrishna Govind Kulkarni, Editor and Publisher of the Shubhodaya newspaper at Dharwar, to show cause why he should not be committed for contempt of Court in respect of the publication of an article commenting on the proceedings in the Court of the First Class Magistrate at Dharwar against two volunteers of the Temperance Committee who were alleged to have extorted some money from a Bhangi.

(2.) The article commences:- Proceedings have been instituted against two volunteers of the Temperance Committee for the alleged extortion of thirteen annas and the hearing commenced ten days back...The Police have appointed to conduct the case one of their inspectors who merely does what he is asked to do by the police and echoes them and earns his pay without any trouble. Every one in the town seems to be under the impression that the complainants voluntarily paid the fine and that the case owes its origin to the pressure of the liquor contractors who desire to make fortune by selling toddy. Moreover there is a thick rumour that on the day on which the volunteers were arrested the trying Magistrate ran up the stair-case of the Collector's Office and called on Mr. Painter and that some whisper took place between them. Again Police Sahebs sit in chairs on the Magistrate's dais and wink (at each other). The chief complainant is a Bhangi under the District Superintendent of Police who receives his pay from the Police Department.

(3.) There are further allegations that the District Police Superintendent was speaking in the middle when witnesses were being examined; that when the pleader for the accused observed that it was right that co-witnesses should be examined on the same day or else there was fear of the Police tutoring the Court adjourned the hearing one hour earlier than the hour of closing of the Court prescribed by law; that although the evidence of the witnesses had been satisfactory, the accused were not enlarged on bail.