SATYARANJAN BAKSHI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two appellants in this case have both been convicted on three counts under Section 124-A, I. P. C. Appellant 1 Satya Ranjan Bakshi was the editor of the daily newspaper Liberty" and appellant 2 Pulin Behari Dhar was the printer and publisher of that paper. Satya Banjan Bakshi has been sentenced on that first count to nine months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 500 with three months rigorous imprisonment in default, with no separate sentence passed on him on the other two counts; Pulin Bihari Dhar has bean sentenced to a fine of Rs. 500 with six months rigorous imprisonment in default on the first count, no separate sentence being inflicted in his case also under the other two counts.

(2.) The charges against the two appellants were in relation to three articles published in the "Liberty." One of them was published on. 10 December 1931, and was headed "Farewell and Beware." The second article which was headad Berhampora and After" was published only two days later, namely, the 12 December 1931, and the third article with the heading "Bengali's duty" was published two days later, namely, on 14 December 1931. According to the prosecution, all these three articles were seditious. According to the defence, there was no sedition in any of them and the articles were only criticisms of some Government measures written with the intention to voice the deep public feeling that had been stirred up over those measures and to bring it to the notice of the proper authorities with the object of securing redress at their hands, and the defence was that the action of the accused was protected under Expls. 2 and 3, Section 124-A. The learned Magistrate did not accept this defence and holding that all the articles were seditious convicted the two appellants in the way as stated before. In the first article "Farewell and Beware," Government was accused of weeding out the Congress workers on the plea of suppression of terrorism. The Hijli, Dacca and Chittagong incidents were described in the article as successive stages of a well thought-out scheme of terrorisation of the masses--a scheme to crush the manhood of the province and to make the province safe for bureaucratic administration and British commerce. The people were exhorted to carry out the programme chalked out at the Berhampore Provincial Conference so that the authors and instigators of repression might be brought to their senses. In the second article that was headed Berhampore and After" the people were exhorted to follow the Berhampore programme with devotion and diligence and extort justice from tainted hands. It was said in this article that it were better that Bengal was effaced from the map of India and the Bengali people became extinct than they should live in ignominy and dishonour and compromise with humiliation.

(3.) The incidents in Chittagong were described as organized arson in the interior of the district; that at Hijli as murder and those at Dacca as wanton raids. In this article the writer continued: Our humiliation is so galling, our helplessness is so abject that we cannot possibly wait for uncertain constitutional developments to mature on an uncertain future date If Bengal dies, who lives ? Truce or no truce, we want to live. True or no truce we must have the elementary rights of civilized human beings. We cannot wait to suffer complete emasculation.