RADHA NATH KARMAKAR Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Rule calling upon the District Magistrate to show cause why the convictions of and sentences passed upon the petitioners should not be set aside on the first ground mentioned in the petition; and the first ground is, that "the trial of the petitioners on charges framed in contravention of Section 233, Criminal Procedure Code, was without jurisdiction and void and the convictions bad and sentences and orders under Section 106 of the Criminal Procedure Code passed on such trial are illegal and fit to be quashed."

(2.) The charges, (as they appear from the petition) against the petitioners, who are 14 in number, were, first, under Section 147 of the Indian Penal Code, secondly, under Section 149 read with Secs.325 and 323, and, thirdly, against some of the petitioners under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Vakil for the petitioners raised no objection to the charge under Section 147 of the Indian Penal Code and that is the section under which the petitioners have been sentenced. Some of the petitioners have been convicted in respect of the other charges, but no separate sentences have been passed in respect thereof.

(3.) The objection, which the learned Vakil for the petitioners, has raised on this rule, may be illustrated by way of reference to the charge under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. It was stated in the petition as follows: That you on or about the 25 May or July 1921 at the same place were members of an unlawful assembly and in prosecution of the common object of that assembly, as stated in the first charge, several members of the said assembly caused grievous hurt to havildar Raghubir Raut and simple hurt to constable Prem Lal Ghose, constable Har Kishore Barua, constable Mohendra Chundra De, Yar Ali Matbar, Abdul Rashid and Oli Mia Doctor and you are thereby under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code guilty of causing the said offences which are punishable under Secs.325 and 323 of the Indian Penal Code.