MAHADEO JAGOBA Vs. SETH RAMLAL GOWARDHAN DAS MAHESRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE applicant is the Vice President of the Municipal Committee of Sausar while the non-applioant is the President. At a meeting of the Municipal Committee held on 13th January 1933 one of the important matters for consideration was the question whether the dismissal by the President of a school master, who was the man of the Vice President, was just and proper. But before this matter came up for discussion the Vice President and the other members urged that the no-confidence motion pending against the President should be taken up for discussion first. Thereupon a hot debate ensued in the course of which it was alleged that the Vice President addressing the President used the words of which the official translation is "why do you explain like a fool." As soon as these words were uttered the President dashed his chair down on the ground and left the meeting which ended without discussing any matter.

(2.) ON these facts the President lodged a complaint against the Vice President in the Court of the Tahsildar and Magistrate Second Class, Sausar, Under Section 504, I.P.C. The defence of the applicant was that he did not use these words to the complainant. On the evidence adduced in the case the trying Magistrate however held that the applicant had used the insulting words to the non-applicant and that consequently the case was covered by Section 504, I.P.C. The result was that the Magistrate convicted the applicant of an offence Under Section 504, I.P.C., and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs. 50. On appeal the District Magistrate upheld the conviction but reduced the fine to Rs. 15 only. It is against these orders that the applicant has now come up to this Court in revision. Mr. Pradhan, who appeared for the applicant, argued, in the first instance, that the word "behoda" is only a term of abuse which conveys no insult to the person to whom it is addressed. The dictionary meaning of the word is absurd, foolish or immoral and the applicant himself in his examination stated that the word "behoda" meant. It is undoubtedly an offensive expression particularly when it is uttered in the course of a debate.