011 - Queen-Empress v. Jogendra Chunder (35-47)
011 - Queen-Empress v. Jogendra Chunder (35-47)
011 - Queen-Empress v. Jogendra Chunder (35-47)
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ORIGINAL CRIMINAL.
“ Our Condition”
“ The English ruler is our lord and master, p,nd can interfere-with
our religion and usages by brute foroe and European civilisation.,
The Hindu ie powerless to resist; but be is superior to your nation
in good morals, in gentle conduct, -and in good education. Hindu
civilisation and the Hindu religion are in danger of beifig des
troyed.”
“ The Bevealed form of the English Ruler.”
“ The most important and the first idea of the uncivilised Sindu.^
“ W e are unable to rebel, but we are not of those who say i^,.
would be improper to do so if we could. W e have been coi}.quere| '
by brute force, but we are superior to the English in ethic's ' and
moraUty, in which we hare nothing to learn from them. ^YouJmay
crush the body, but you cannot affect the mind. Others like
VOL. X IX .] C IL C U IT A S IB IE S . 37
Auriingaebe and Kalapahar Iiaye tried before you and failed. You is 9i
should not try and suppress girl-man'iage beeause you won at
Plassey and Assays. It is error and presiimptiou on. your part to I mpbess
attempt to reform oiir morala.” J oqbm-dea
Chuitiusb
B o sb.
“ Whai is the end to he. ? ”
beoame law, and from that time to this there Las been no pro- I89l
gecution under the seotion. Praoticaily the offence before the —
Jury is the attempting to exoite, by words intended to be read, Bmphess
feelings of disaffection to the GoTernment, the Expkm iion to the j-oaENnEA
section is intended to cover eyery sort of k ’wfal criticism o f the C^hdeb
measures of the G-o-vernment. Merely to excite disapprobation is
not an offence, but the disapprobation must be compatible 'with a
disposition to support the authority of the Grovernment against
unlawful attempts to subvert or resist that authority. It Is
■impossible to say that these articles are consistent with such
a disposition to render obedience' to and to support the Q-ovemment.
The term ‘ disafflection ’ is a wide one, and. does not necessarily
point to‘ a direct incitement to rebellion or any particular form of
force. The word is used in the State trials for seditious libel
before the Commonwealth, and in Ludlow’s Memoirs as applicable'
to persons discontented with the Grovernment, who did not show
their discontent by overt acts. The meaning is “ to be or cause
to be withc«it affection, attachment, friendship, regard, love,
or' goodwill; to dislike, to have discontent, to dissatisfy, to-
discompose.” -*— Eneyclopmdia, 1845.
In the present case the Jtify must go upon section 124A. The'
law of" England is even stricter than the seotion, and it is laid
dowp in Sir J. Stephen’s Sistory of the Crimiml Lav) (1) that'
th'^ law of !FranGe and Germany, not to speak of that of Russia,
is severer than that of England. A seditious intention b y the
law of England' is an intention not merely to bring into dis
repute or extoite disaffection against the Government or the
Constitution of the United Eingdom,’but to raise discontent ox
dissatisfaction between different classes of Her Majesty’s subjeots.
In India, apparently, it is not an offence to incite class against
class, and seotion 124A has nothing to do with this subject. The
case of T. Burns and others (2) wfll be relied upon to show
that there must he some direct appeal to arms, hub the g;'uestion
iij that ease was whether there had been any incitement to one
class to use force against another class. , T h at' case, therefore,, and
otjiers of the same Jkind have no application to the present* Then
1891 the discussions ■wliieli took place in the Oouneil with referenoe to
this seotion and with reference to the Yernaoular Press Acts should
Q,d e b n -
liiPEEsa not be taken into consideration in order to arrive at the meaning
JooE^sDTiA construction of the section. "With regard to the meaning of
Chunbbb « attempt,’ the Jury will have to look to the words which the_
writer of these articles has used to express his intention, and to
the surrounding ciroumsfcances. Stephen’s Digest o f ihe Criminal
Law, articles 91"—i)4. In the case of Reg. v. BurM l (1)
Mr. Justice Best laya down that it is for the Jury to collect the
intention from the paper itself, unless it is explained hy the mode
of publication or by any other circumstanoes. The Jury were to
see whether the words used were likely at that period to excite
dissatisfaction and iiTitation, and if they were likely to induce
sedition, the intention must he presumed to he to excite what the
act was likely to produce. [The remarks of Holrdyd, J.,
at page 135 of the report were also referred to.] The present
case is covered hy the car- of £eff. v. O'Connell (2), which
was held to be a case "of conspiracy, because the .objects were
unlawful. In the case of Btg. v. 8uUmn (3), the duty ^f
the Jury is correctly laid down by Fitzgerald, J., when he ch^irged
the Jury that they should deal with the articles in a 'fa ir and
liberal spirit, not picking out an objectionable sentence he^e or a
Birong word there, or giving undue importance to inflated and
turhid language, but looking at the real intention and spirit of'the
articles (4).
■Witnesses were then called as to the publication of the articles
by the accused, after which Mr. Upans summed up in detail the
evidence for the prosecution.
1891 feom Sir James Stephen, aud others. A.nd on this point con-
Emmess Origmally the section was section 113 of Macaulay’s Penal Code,
JooEifDEA but was for some reason omitted from the Code itself. Sir
J. Stephe% when the matter came to b& coDsideied in the year
1870, re£e%’ed to Sir Barnes Peacock, who on looting at hia notes,
said he thought the section had been omitted by mistake, bat
had no positive recollection (vide Gazette of India, A,TignBt 6th,
1870, Supp. Vol., 1019, 1311). There was on that occasion
a discussion as to section 113, and Sir J. Barnes Peacock proposed
a section which was thought to be too severe, and no corresponding
section was enacted. Sir J. Stephen in introducing the present
section explained what the law of England then was, and stated
that he proposed that section 124A should be pas3fctli5.to law,
because if there were no provision in the law of India, the offence
^ould fall under the common law of England, and would be more
BSTerely punishable; and he most distinctly asserted that there
must be an intention to resist by force or an attempt to escita
resistance by force before' the offence could be brought un(^r ths'
present section. The peculiarity of the law of treason i:g. England
is that it considers every thought of the heart criminal, which
is to be punished as soon as it is manifested by any ofert act,,
but the clause as it stands insists' on a distinction between (disaf
fection and disapprobation. A person may freely say whaf?>h0
pleases about any Government measure or any public man' as lonp
as it is consistent with a disposition to render obedience to t]i
lawful authority of Grovernment. In connection with this S'ubjeo
Sir J. Stephen has clearly said that the freedom of the pre
would not be curtailed bo long as the principle above' laid
was adhered to. Sir J. Stephen has pointed out that i "
far more violent than the ones which have been made the s
this prosecution had appeared in the English newspapers
and had passed unnoticed. [Mr, Jackson then refer"
Hobhouse’s minutes of the 18th May 1875 and the
1876 in oonneotion with the discussions on the
Act, and also referred to Lord Lytton’s and '
speeches in Council, adopting these as part of ]
the view which those authorities then took
VOL. X12.] CALCUTTA SEEIES. 43
tM r readers, and if bo, wliether tlxey intended to create such feel- iggi
ing their circulation. ' QoEEif-
'Having taken- this esplanntion of the section from me, it now iiiPSEss
rests mth you to decide whether the accused by the words of the Jqoendba.
articles which were intended to he read have been guilty of an Chundeb
attempt to excite disaffection against the Goverument, Ton will
have to hear in mind the class of paper whioh is being prosecuted
and the class of people among whom it circulated, taking into con-
' sideration the articles which have been made the subject of the
indictment and the others which have been put in during the course
of the trialff. Those articles are not addressed to the lowest or most
ignorant mass of the people. You will see from the article
refening to Jute that they were not addressed to the cultivating
classes! I'hey are addressed to people of the respectable middle
class who can read and understand their meaning—more or less the
same class as the writers. You will have to consider, not only the
intent of the person who wrote and disseminated the articles among
the class named, but the probable effect of the language indulged
in. “Then yon will have to consider the relations between the Grov-
ernmenb’ and the people, and having considered the peculiar
position of the Qovernment, and the consequence to it of any well-
organized disaffection, you will have to decide whether there is an
attempt or not to disseminate matter with the intention of exciting
the feelings of the people till they become disaffected. British
India is part of the British Bmpu’e, and is governed like other
•parts of the Empire by persons to whom the power is delegated for
that purpose. There is a great difierence between dealing with
(jovernment in that sense and dealing with any particular adminis
tration. "Were these articles intended to excite feelings of enmity
against the G overnment, or, on the other hand, were they merely
expressing, though in strong language, disapprobation of certain
Government measures ? You will bear in mind that the question
y§u have to decide has reference to the intention; and,, in fact,
the crime consists of the intention, for ft man might lawfully do
the act without the intention. The evidence of the intent can
only ba gathered from the articles. The ultimate object of thq
writer may be one thing, but if, in attaining that object, he uses,
as the means the exciting'of disaffection against the Gavernnieijt,.
46 THE m DIAN LAW EEPOETS, [VOL. XIX.
1891 then ibte would be guilty under section X34A. I f you tliink
~Q kew object of procuring the repeal -of tlia
Empkes3 Age of Consent Act, or of increasing the sale of tbeir paper, dis-
JoGENDfiA seminated these articles intending to excite feelings of enmity,
Chtjwdbe you will be bound to find a verdict of guilty. As to tbe evidence
of intent, the articles are tlie only evidence. Tlie cbargea are
baaed on tbe five articles wliioh are tbe subject of tbo indictment.
Other articles have been quite properly put in during the progress
of the trialj but no charges are laid in connection with the latter. ^
They were put in, some by the prosecution and some by the
defence, to prove that their view of the intent of ^he articles
charged was indicated in the others. These articles have been
read and re-read to you gentlemen so frequently that I do act
consider it necessary to discuss them in detail agaiu. will
simply touch, on their bearing on the case, and as to whether they
disclose an intent to cause disaffection or disapprobation only.
The ]?oi^eman of the Jury stated that the Jury were not agreed,
and that there was no chance of their returning an. unanimous
verdict.' Upon which His Lordship said that he would not tak»
any verdict that was not unanimoufl in this ease.
The Jury were then discharged, the case being ordered to remain
as a remanet for the next Sessions, the accused being enlarged on
hail.
A. A. 0.