KUPPU ODAYAR Vs. POOMALAI GOUNDAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The order passed by the District Magistrate.under Section 144, Criminal Procedure Code, on 23 September, 1923, has expired.

(2.) It is therefore unnecessary to adjudicate upon the merits of the order, and it would be superfluous to annul an order which has long ceased to be in force, vide Swaminatha Mudaliar V/s. Gopalakrishna Naidu (1915) 28 IC 160.

(3.) Nevertheless it has been strongly urged that the District Magistrate should not have issued an order under Section 144 and should not have discharged the Sub- divisional Magistrate's order under Section 107, Criminal Procedure Code, without finding that there was a danger of a breach of the peace even if the Goundans continued to be bound over to keep the peace. In Muthukumaraswami Nadar v. Muhammad Rowther (1921) 42 MLJ 352 a learned Judge of this Court whose attention does not seem to have been drawn to Swaminatha Mudaliar v. Gopalakrishna Naidu (1915) 28 IC 160 thought it incumbent on him to interfere in revision with an expired order. The cases quoted by him do not in my opinion support his view.