Criminal Law Amendment Act

Lahore, Friday, September 26, 1924

WITH the passing by the Legislative Assembly of the Bill for the repeal of Part 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the nationalist majority in the people’s chamber has entered upon a line of activity the importance and urgency of which have again and again been emphasised both in these columns and elsewhere, and in regard to which happily there is no difference of opinion worth the name in political India. What the fate of the Bill in its subsequent stages will be, whether the Council of State will pass it, and even if it does, whether it will receive the Viceroy’s assent, we have no means of knowing at the present time. The ground for confidence on either point is, we confess, none. The Council of State has so often even proved itself to be an utterly unrepresentative and thoroughly reactionary body and has only recently given such a miserable account of itself in connection with the Lee recommendations that it will be no matter for surprise if it will fail to carry out the unanimous wishes of the people even in this vital matter. As regards the Viceroy, he must, indeed, be a bold man who could take it upon himself to say, after the Home Member’s speech on the second reading of the Bill, that His Excellency would readily accept the popular verdict in this matter. “Our witnesses,” he said, “are intimidated and shot. Am I to stand by when our chief Commissioner of Police is being hunted for his life? Am I to stand by and see terrorism in the land and men with revolvers? No, Sir, so long as I am a member of the Government of India, I will not.”