Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC781; (1956)IMLJ37(SC); [1955]2SCR589
Das, Actg. C.J. 1. This judgment will dispose of all the five petitions (Nos. 189 to 193 of 1955) which have been heard together and which raise the same question as to the constitutional validity of the C.P. & Berar Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 1947, (Act III of 1948). 2. The facts are short and simple. Each of the petitioners has been carrying on business as stage carriage operator for a considerable number of years under permits granted under section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Central Act IV of 1939) as amended by the C.P. & Berar Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 1947 (Act III of 1948). 3. Prior to the amendment section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 was in the following terms :- '58 (1). A permit other than a temporary permit issued under section 62 shall be effective without renewal for such period, not less than three years and not more than five years, as the Regional Transport Authority may in its discretion specify in the permit. Provided that in the case of a p...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC801; 1955CriLJ1647; (1956)IMLJ31(SC); [1955]2SCR570
Jagannadhadas, J.1. This is an appeal by special leave. The appellant Deonandan Mishra (Deonandan Missir) who was a stenographer to the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner of Income-Tax, Patna, has been convicted under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for having committed the murder of his second wife, Smt. Parbati Devi, on the night of the 3rd/4th September, 1953 and sentenced to transportation for life. The deceased was married to the appellant in or about the year 1941 and was his second wife. As appears from the subsequent events, she was considered to be a woman of loose morals. She appear to have been forsaken by her husband as also by her father in or about the year 1945 and to have sought shelter in the Anath Ashram at Gaya. Through the intervention of the secretary of the Ashram and with the consent of both the husband and the father, she got remarried to one Nand Lall of Punjab in December, 1945. After a stay of about an year and a half with Nand Lall in Punjab, she appears...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC778; 1955CriLJ1642; (1956)IMLJ28(SC); [1955]2SCR583
Bose, J.1. The only question here is about sentence. 2. The appellant Bed Raj and another, Sri Chand, were jointly charged with the murder of one Pheru. The Sessions Judge convicted Bed Raj under section 304, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced him to three years' rigorous imprisonment. He acquitted Sri Chand. 3. Bed Raj appealed to the High Court and that Court, on admitting the appeal for hearing, issued notice to the appellant to show cause why the sentence should not be enhanced. The appeal and the revision were heard together. The appeal was dismissed and the High Court enhanced the sentence to ten years. 4. Now, though no limitation has been placed on the High Court's power to enhance it is nevertheless a judicial act, and like all judicial acts involving an exercise of discretion, must be exercised along well known judicial lines. The only question before us is whether those lines have been observed in the present case. 5. The facts that have been found by the Sessions Judge and ac...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC795; [1955]2SCR531
Venkatarama Ayyar, J. 1. These are applications under article 32 of the Constitution by certain jagirdars of Marwar, challenging the constitutionality of sections 81 to 86 of the Marwar Land Revenue Act No. XL of 1949 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) on the ground that they infringe the fundamental rights of the petitioners under article 14, article 19(1)(f) and article 31(2) of the Constitution. These sections provide for fixing fair and equitable rent payable by the tenants and prescribe the procedure to be followed therefore. Section 81 of the Act provides that when any local area has been brought under settlement operations by a notification under section 64, the Settlement Officer or an Assistant Settlement Officer shall inspect every village in the local area, divide it into-soil-classes and assessment circles, select rent-rates for the area and publish them in such manner as may be prescribed. If objections to these proposals are received, he has to consider them, and submit...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC817; (1956)IMLJ12(SC); [1955]2SCR541
Jagannadhadas, J.1. This is an appeal by the State of Madras and the Union of India against the judgment and decree of the High Court on a certificate granted by that Court under article 133 of the Constitution. The appeal arises out of a suit filed by the respondent herein, who was a member of the Indian Civil Service, for a declaration that the order issued by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras on the 7th August, 1947, purporting to terminate his services as from the afternoon of the 14th August, 1947, is null, void and inoperative and that he must be deemed to continue in the Indian Civil Service as a Member thereof.The suit was filed on the original side of the High Court of Madras and after having been partly tried by a Single Judge who recorded the evidence, was thereafter heard by a Bench of two Judges in view of the important constitutional question that arose for consideration in the case. The Bench found in favour of the plaintiff and decreed the suit and hence t...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC792; 1955CriLJ1644; (1956)IMLJ25(SC); [1955]2SCR524
Bose, J.1. This is another of those cases in which Courts are compelled to acquit because Magistrates and Sessions Judges fail to appreciate the importance of section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code and fail to carry out the duty that is cast upon them of questioning the accused properly and fairly, bringing home to his mind in clear and simple language the exact case he has to meet and each material point that is sought to be made against him, and of affording him a chance to explain them if he can and so desires. Had the Sessions Judge done that in this case it is possible that we would not have been obliged to acquit. 2. The facts are simple. The appellant Machander was charged with the murder of one Manmath. Machander's brother Gona was also challaned but as he absconded he could not be tried. 3. The appellant and the deceased and Gona reside in the same village. There was some ill-feeling between the appellant and the deceased and it can be accepted that Gona shared his brother...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1956SC99; 1956CriLJ278; 1956(0)KLT92(SC)
Bose, J.1. The appellant Raghavan has been convicted under Section 302, Indian Penal Code, for murdering one Ayyappan and has been sentenced to death. His younger brother Bhaskaran was also charged but was convicted under Section 324, Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to two years. We are not concerned with him here.2. There are six eye-witnesses to the murder, all of whom have been believed by both the Courts. We decline to go behind this evidence and so will proceed at once to assess the case on the basis of the facts found. They are as follows.3. Litigation was in progress between the appellant and his grandmother Parvathi Amma. The latter sued the appellant and his brother for partition and separate possession of her share in her son's estate, the son being the father of the appellant and his two brothers (one of whom does not figure in this case).4. During the course of the proceedings the grandmother Parvathi Amma assigned her interest to her daughter Parvarthy Lakshmi Amma (P.W. ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC789; (1956)IMLJ9(SC); [1955]2SCR517
Imam, J.1. These petitions under article 32 of the Constitution of India question the validity of the notifications issued under section 52-A of the Insurance Act of 1938 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) and the appointment of an Administrator. In the case of the Tropical Insurance Company Ltd. an Administrator was appointed under notification dated the 14th of July, 1951, and in the case of the Jupiter General Insurance Company Ltd. another Administrator was appointed under notification dated the 10th of July, 1951. These two insurance companies do insurance business of life insurance and general insurance. Admittedly previous to the appointment of the Administrators the Controller issued notices under section 52-A to the petitioners and the Finance Ministry of the Central Government sent letters to them pointing out the allegations in the report of the Controller to which they replied. 2. The learned Counsel for the petitioners has candidly stated that he could not raise any cons...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1956SC56; 1956CriLJ152
Venkatarama Ayyar, J.1. On 17-5-1952 Sri Nand Lal Kureel, the City Magistrate of Manipuri, returned home from court at about 5 p. m. and found his son, Sumer Singh, aged about 10 or 11 years, missing. After some fruitless search, he e-ported the matter to the police. On information given later that night by P. W. 26, Sri Kureel sent for Bhola, the first accused, who stated that he and the second accused, Ram Singh, had in the course of the day lured away the boy. The second accused was then sent for, and he also made a similar statement. Thereupon, Sri Kureel handed them over to the police for further investigation.At about 3 a. m. on the same night, Bhola and Ram Singh took the police, Sri Kureel & some others to an outlying garden, and at their instance, the dead body of Sumer Singh was discovered in a well in that garden. The post-mortem examination showed that death was due to asphyxia. Both the courts below have held that it was not a case of accidental drowning but of murder by s...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1955SC786; (1956)IMLJ5(SC); [1955]2SCR509; [1956]6STC687(SC)
Bhagwati, J.1. The petitioners are a firm carrying on business on a very large scale of making and selling bidis having their head office in Jabalpur in the State of Madhya Pradesh. They are registered as 'dealer' for the purpose of the Central Provinces and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947. 2. In the course of their said business, the petitioners import tobacco from the State of Bombay in very large quantities after it is blended in that State by the vendors with various other types of indigenous tobacco by an elaborate process. This finished tobacco, after its import within the State of Madhya Pradesh is rolled into bidis which are exported to various other States, largely to the State of Uttar Pradesh. The dealers in the State of Uttar Pradesh and such other States who buy bidis from the petitioners sell the same to various other dealers and consumers in those States. 3. The Sales Tax authorities in the State of Madhya Pradesh required the petitioners under threat of criminal prosecution t...
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