EMPEROR Vs. JKGAS PLANT MANUFACTURING CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The historical background from which these applications in revision spring, is set in the Ordinances, Notifications and Orders for regulating the life of the Community, the preservation and distribution of supplies and the efficient prosecution of the war created under emergency legislation of War.

(2.) The matters with which we are concerned depend upon two Notifications for regulating the distribution and transportation of raw materials in the iron and steel industry, the rules for the punishment of offences, and a group of Ordinances designed for setting up Special Tribunals for the trial of offenders against the control Notifications. Except for prolongation, all the Orders made under the Defence of India Act, 1939, and the Rules would have expired on September 30, 1946, being the date fixed, as being six months after the cessation of hostilities against the enemy.

(3.) The applicants are two companies incorporated outside British India, and three persons who hold responsible positions in one or other or both these companies, and the offences alleged against them are said to have occurred in the latter half of the year 1943, though the trial of them by the Second Special Tribunal at Lahore was far from being completed by September 30, 1946, indeed, the stage reached is that the charges have only recently been formulated.