EMPEROR Vs. JCHOUDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Rule on the Editor, Publisher and Printer of the Calcutta Weekly Notes, a well- known law journal now in the 52nd year of its publication, calling on them to show cause why they should not be committed or otherwise dealt with for alleged contempt of Court in respect of the publication of an article in the issue of the paper dated 21-4-1947.

(2.) The proceeding was commenced on a report made to this Court by the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta, Mr. W.J. Palmer, I.C.S., by his letter Ro. 1408 dated 5-5-1947, calling our attention to the following passage in the said article which appeared in the second column on page xcii as editorial comment: On top of this, came the other day news of armed police men breaking into a house in the heart of the city - premises No. 100, Harrison - Road be labouring all and sundry, arresting whoever they did not perhaps like the look of, and raping a married woman. The excuse for this barbarous intrusion, after the curfew order, into a house inhabited by a large number of citizens, was that a cracker had burst near the point where the police picket was posted.

(3.) Mr. Palmer stated that it appeared to him that this paragraph clearly amounted to contempt of Court, as it stated that the alleged occurrence had actually taken place, a fact which was strongly denied by the defence. According to him, the report in question was likely to prejudice the trial of a case which he was at present enquiring into under the Code of Criminal Procedure, and which ho said he intended to commit to the High Court Sessions if a prima facie case was disclosed. The case was one in which two Police Constables named Md. Ali and Golam Hossain were alleged to have raped a married woman at 100, Harrison Road on 14-4-1947.