ACTION UNDER “ORDINARY” LAW

ONE really does not know whether to admire the ingenuity or to condemn the illegal actions of those officials who, acting under the provision of the “ordinary” law, are putting the security sections of the Criminal Procedure Code and notably Section 144 to uses which were probably never dreamt of by the original framers of these sections of the criminal law. The Government has hit upon this convenient device because resort to these sections has a two-fold advantage from its point of view. While the elementary rights of free speech or writing can be as effectively curtailed as when action was taken under the repressive laws, in the present case it will not be said, technically speaking, that the Government is taking advantage of any emergency or special legislation to curtail popular liberty. The security sections of the Criminal Procedure Code as also Section 144 are preventive provisions certainly not designed by the Legislature for the suppression of political agitation. The wholesale use which is being made of these sections of the law is not only illegal but actually constitutes a grave menace to some of the fundamental rights of the people. The High Court Bar Association of Lahore, in its manifesto, issued a warning to the Government against the present policy in more or less general terms. The protest against the abuse of certain sections of the law by the magistracy, issued by the Madras Vakil’s Association, is in the nature of a challenge to the Law officers of the Crown in India. It is a pity, as we have had occasion to say before, that non-co-operators refrain from going up to the High Courts in appeal. It is inconceivable to us that any High Court would uphold the orders under these sections of subordinate magistrates in the majority of the cases.

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