KIDAR NATH S/O SIRI RAM Vs. CROWN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Section 23, Press (Emergency Powers) Act, XXII

(23.) of 1931. The petitioner before us is Shree Kidar Nath, the keeper of the Press known as the Printers Ltd., of Ambala Cantonment. He was ordered by the East Punjab Government to deposit a sum of Rs. 3,000 as security under Section 3, Sub-section (3), Press (Emergency Powers) Act on account of the publication of an article "Yefa kaun aya hai" in the Weekly Insaf of 4 August 1948. It was alleged that this article contained matter which "tends directly or in-directly to bring into hatred or contempt the. Government established by law or to excite disaffection towards the said Government" within the meaning of Clause (d), Sub-section (1) of Section 4, Indian Press (Emergency Powers) Act. The petitioner has moved this Court for the cancellation of the order of the Punjab Government.

(2.) The learned Counsel for the petitioner raised three points before us. He argued in the first place that incitement to violence was an essential ingredient of the offence contemplated by the provisions of Section 4 and that unless the published matter contained a direct incitement to violence no order for the deposit of security under Sub-section (3) of Section 3", could be passed.