SHEIKH PIRU Vs. KING-EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I agree with the order which my learned brother proposes to pass and desire to add some word of my own because I have noticed a tendency of late to abuse the provisions of Section 109, Criminal Procedure Code and to use it in a manner in which it was never intended to be used.

(2.) Any one acquainted with Calcutta is aware that there is a large floating population mostly of the coolie class. These people have no place of abode. They spend the night in verandahs and doorways and eat where they can. Daring the day they work as coolies. For such people to prove to the satisfaction of the Court that they have work is well nigh impossible. The only people who could give any evidence on the point are probably not known to the person proceeded against for they are possibly employed by several persons in one day as casual labourers whose name and residence is unknown to them and who certainly would not remember they had employed them.

(3.) They may be working quite honestly but it is very difficult and if not impossible to prove it. To call on such persons to give security is to perpetrate a farce. No one is going to stand surety for a homeless coolie.