April 17 v. THE STA'l'E OF BOMBAY

High Court did not go into the question as to whether tbe appellant was prosecuted when proceedings were M b ~H . • k b f A h aq OO• uss•in .a en e ore t e ea ustoms v. dered the question of punishment in the first instance The State of and thought it necessary to arrive at a finding as ta the ownership of the confiscated gold before it could consider the application of the appellant. opinion of the High Court the appellant could be said to have been punished only if it were established If he that he was the owner of the confiscated gold. was the owner, the confiscation was ·a punishment, which would not be so if he W'as not the owner of the gold. In the Bhagwatt .r. Bombay. This question of the ownership of the gold was not 'l'he gold was found in the in our opinion material. possession of the appellant when he landed at the Santa Uruz airport. '!'he appellant was detained and searched by the Customs. Authorities and the gold was seized from his person. Proceedings under section 167 (8) were taken by the Customs Authorities and after examining witnesses an order was passed on the 19th December, 1949, confiscating the gold and giving an option to the owner to pay a fine of Rs. 12,000 in lieu of such confiscation under section 183 of the Sea Customs Act. Copy of this order was forwarded to the appellant and for all practical purposes the appel lant was treated as the owner of the confiscated gold. As a matter of fact when evidence was recorded be fore the Chief Presidency Magistrate on remand the Assistant Collector of Customs gave evidence that no one else had claimed the gold and had the appellant paid the penalty and obtained the Reserve Bank per mit and produced the detention slip be would have been given the gold. Once the appellant was found. in possession of the confiscated gold the burden of proving that he was not the owner would fall upon whosoever affirmed that he was not the owner. '!.'be complaint which was filed in the Court of the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay, also proceeded on the footing that the appellant committed an offence in so far as he brought the gold without the permit from ' 736 SUPREME COUR'l' REPORTS [i953j Maqbool Hussa•n v ' · · l h b Bombay. f h I95B - the Reserve Bank of India, that no permit was.ever . applied for or granted to the appellant and that the appel ant ad een given an opportumty o s owmg The s;ate of whether he had obtained such permit but that he failed to produce the s:i,me. It appears therefore that the question of the ownership could not assume as BhagwatiJ. much importance ~s the High Court attached to it. If the Court came to the conclusion that the appel lant was prosecuted wheu proceedings were taken by the 8ea Customs Authorities there was not much scope left fort-he argument that he was not punished by the confiscation of tlle gold and the option given to him to pay a fine of Rs. 12,000 in lien of such con fiscation. 'fo be deprived of the right of possession of valuable goods may well be regarded in certain circumstances as by itself a punishment. We have therefore got to determine whether under the circum stances the appellant cau be said to have been prose the Sea cuted when proceedings were Customs Authorities. taken by ). The fundamental right which is guaranteed in arti cle 20(2) enunci&tes the principle of "autrefois con 'fhe roots of that princi vict" or "double jeopardy". ple are to be found in the well established rule of the common law of England "that where a person has been convicted of an offence by a court of competent juris diction the conviction is a bar to all further criminal (Per Charles J. in proceedings for the same offence." Reg. v. Miles (1 'l'o the same effect is the ancient maxim "Nemo bis debet punire pro uno delicto'', that is to say that uo one ought to be twice punished for one offence or q,s it is sometimes written "pro eadem causa'', ,that is, for the same cause . . :This is the principle on which the party pursued h-as available to him the plea of "autrefois convict" or"autrefois acquit''. "'rhe plea of 'autrefois con vict' or 'autrefois acquit' a,;ers that the defendant has 'been previously convicted or acquitted on a charge for the same offence as that in respect of which he is arrnigned ...... The question for the 'jury (I) •4 Q.B.D. 423, S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 737 , . l h d f 1953 · on the issus is whether the defendant has previouqly . been ip jeopardy iu re;;pect of the charge on which he,, 6 -;--H . f [ ;uaq OO• ussain is arra1gne , or t e ru e o aw Is that a person must v. not be put in peril twice for the same offence. The ThB Stat• of test is whether the former offence .and the offence no~ Bombay. charged have the~me 1ngrer11e.uts IU the sense that . the facts constitutmg the oue are sufficient to justify Bhagwat• .r. a conviction of the other, not that the facts relied on by the Crown are the same in the two trials. A plea of 'autrefois acquit' is not proved unless it is shown that the verdict of aGquittal of the previous charge necessarily involves an acquittal of the latter." (Vide Halsbnry's Laws of England, Hailsham Edition, Vol. 9, pages 152 and 163, paragraph 212). - This principle found recognition in section 26 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 ,- "Where an act or omission constitutes an offence under two or more enactments, then the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished nuder either or any of those enactment& but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same offence," and also in section 403 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898,- " A person who ·has been tried by a court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted of such offence shall, while such convic tion or acquittal remains in force, not be liable to be tried again for the same offence, nor on the same facts for any other offence for which a different charge from the one made against him might have been made under section 236, or for which he might have been convicted under section 237." The Fifth Amendment of the American Constitu· tion enunciated this principle in the manner follow· ing:- " ............... nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be witness against himself .......... , .... " 738 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1953] t95B - 19 b Maq oo v • • • 1• d t Bombay. ussa<n h · o crimes o t at tue 1mmumty 1s restncte • Willis in his Constitutional Law, at page .528, obser- . ves that the phrase "jeopardy of lifo or limb" indicates f h t e The st~t• of big best grade, and this is the way Blackstone states the rule: "Yet, by a gradual process of liberal con· struction the courts have extended the scope of the Bhagwali J. clause to make i~ applicable to all indictable offences, including misdemeanours." .......... " Under the United States rule, to be put in jeopardy there must be a valid indictment or information duly presented to a court of competent jurisdiction, there must be an arraignment and plea, and a lawful jury must be It is not necessary to have a impanelled and sworn. verdict. The protection is not against a second punishment but against the peril in which he is placed by the jeopardy mentioned." These w~re the materials which formed the back ground of the guarantee of fundamental right given in article 20(2). It incorporated within its scope the plea of "autrefois convict" _as known to the British jurisprudence or the plea of double jeopardy as known to the American Constitution but circumscribed it by providing that there should be not only a prosecution but also a punishment in the fir3t instance in order to operate as a bar to a second prosecution and punishment for the same offence. The words "before a court of law or judicial tribunal" are not to be found in article 20(2). But if regard be had to the whole background indicated it is clear that in order that the protec tion of article 20(2) be invoked by a citizen there must have been a prosecution and punishment in respect of the same offence before a court of law or a tribunal, required by law to decide the matters in con troversy judicially on evidence on oath which it must be authorised by law to administer and not before a tribunal which entertains a departmental or an ad ministrative enquiry even though set up by a statute but not required to proceed on legal evidence given on oa.th. The very wording of article 20 and the words use<l therein:-" convicted", " commission of • S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 739 , " d d . h d" " accuse o any o euce , won the act charged as an offence", "he subjected to a 1968 penalty", "commission of the offence"," prnsecutedM b -lH f an pums e v. indicate that the proceedings therein contemplated The state of are of the nature of criminal proceedings before a court of law or a judicial tribunal and the prosecu- tion in this context would mean an initiation or start- ing of proceedings of a criminal nature before a court of law or a judicial tribunal in accordance with the procedure prescribed in the statute which creates the offence and regulates the procedure. ld aq oo Bombay, Bhagwati '· . u•M•n The tests of a judicial tribunal were laid down by this Court in Bharat Bank Ltd., Delhi v. Employees of the Bharat Bank Ltd., Delhi(') in the following passage quoted with approval by Mahajan and Mukherjea JJ. from Oocper v. Wilson(') at page 340 :- "A true judicial decision presupposes ~n existing dispute between two or more parties and then involves four requisites :-(1) The presentation (not neces sarily orally) of their case by the parties to the dis pute; (2) If the dispute between them is a question of fact, the ascertainment of the fact by means of evid ence adduced by the parties to the di, pute and often with the assistance of argument by or on behalf of the parties on the evidence; (3) If the dispute between them is a question of law, the submission of legal argument by the parties; and ( 4) A decision which r"' disposes of the whole matter by a finding upon the facts in dispute and application of the law of the land to the facts so found, including where required a ruling npon any disputed question of law." The question whether the Sea Customs Authorities when they entertained proceedings for confiscation of tbe gold in question acted as a judicial tribunal has got to be determined in accordance with the abov~ tests. The Sea Customs Act, 1878, was enacted to con solidate and amend the law relating to the levy of sea customs duties. The hierarchy of the officials are the (1) (1950] S.C.R. 459, 96 (2) [1937] 2 K.B. 309. • 740 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1953 1958 Th• Stat• of Bombay. Customs Collector, who is the officer of· Customs for u b ~ . the time being in separate charge of a custom house, 00 v ussaintbe Chief Customs Officer who is the 'Chief Execu tive Officer of the Sea Customs for a port and the Chief Customs Authority which is the Central Board of Revenue. Sections 18 'and 19 enact prohibitions Bhagwati J. and restrictions on importation and exportation of goods and section 19 (a) provides for detention and confiscation of goods whose importation is prohibited. After making various provisions for the levy of sea customs duties, Chapter XVI enacts offences and penalties and several offences mentioned in the first column of the scheaule to section 167 are made punishable with penalties mentioned in the third column thereof. Item 8 relates to the offence commit ted by the importation of goods contrary to the pro hibition or restriction imposed in that behalf under sections 18 and 19 of the Act and penalty prescribed for such an offence is:- "Such goods shall be liable to confiscation; any person concerned in any such offence shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding three times the value of the goods, or not exceeding one thousand rupees." Chapter XVII prescribes the procedure relating to offences, appeals, etc. Powers of search are given to the officers of customs but provision is made that a person about to be searched can require the officer to take him previous to search before the nearest Magis trate or Customs Collector. Search warrant can only be issued by the Magistrate and can be executed in the same way and has the same effect as a search warrant issued under a law relating to criminal pro cedure. Powers are also given to the officers of Customs to arrest persons reasonably suspected ol _having committed an offence under the Act but the person arrested is to be forthwith taken before the nearest Magistrate or Customs Collector. The Magis· trate is entitled either to commit such person to jail or order him to be kept in custody of the police for such time as is necessary to enable the Magistrate to communicl'.te with the proper officers of Customs. No • S.C.R. SUPREME COUH'l' REPORTS 741 . · d · · · Bombay. such power is given to the Customs Collector. Sec- 1953 tion 18l(A) also prnvides for the detention of pack- - . h Maqboo! Himain teat100.; unporte mto t e age' conta1111ng cei:t1a1 pu States. Section 182 provides that except in the case Th• ~~tao/ of certain offences therein mentioned which involve proceedings before a Magistrate confiscation, increas- ed rate of duty or penalty can be adjudged by the Bh?gwati J. Customs Authorities therein mentioned and sec- tion 183 provides for option to be given to the owner of the goods confiscated to pay in lieu of confisca- tion such fine as the officer thinks fit. Section 186 pro- vides that the award of any confiscation, penalty or increased rate of duty under the Act by an officer of Customs is not to prevent the infliction of any punish· ment to which the person affected thereby is liable under any other law. An :ippea,l is provided under section 188 from a decision or order of the officer of Customs to the Chief Customs Anthoritv who is thereupon to make such further enquiry" and pass such order as he thinks fit confirming, altering or annulling the deuision or or.der appealed against. Section 191 provides .for a revision by the Central Government on the application of a person aggr.ieved by any decision or order passed by an officer of Cus- toms or the Chief Customs Authority from which no appeal lies. Section 193 provides for the enforce- ment of the payment of penalty or increased rate of duty as adjudged against any person by an officer of Customs. If such officer is not able to realise the un- paid amount from other goods in charge he can notify in writing tQ any Magistrate within the local limits of whose jurisdiction such person may be, his name and residence and the amonnt of penalty or increased rate of duty unrecovered and such Magistrate is thereupon to proceed to enforce payment of the said amount in like manner as if such penalty or increased rate had been a fine inflicted by himself. It is clear on a perusal of the above provi,;ions that the powers of search, arrest and detention are given to the Cnstoms Authorities for the levy of sea cnstoms duties and provision is made at the same ti~e for a ) 742 SUPREME COURT REPOR'i'S [1953j 1963 - - 1 Mag oo HuS3a•n v. b · · t Bombay. Bhagwati J. · d C person 1s require . reference to the Magistrate in all cases· where search . warrants are needed and detention of the arrested f · ertam o ences o a senous na ure ·Th• St•te of are to be tried only by Magistrates who are the only authorities who can inflict punishments by way of imprisonment. l!;ven though the customs officers are invested with the power of adjudging· confiscation, increased rates of duty or penalty the highest penalty which can be inflicted is Rs. 1,000. Confiscation is no doubt one of the penalties which the Customs Autho rities can impose but that is more in the nature of proceedings in rem than proceedings in parsonam, the object being to confiscate the offending goods which have been dealt with contrary to the provisions of the law and in respect of the confiscation also an option is given to the owner of the goods to pay in lieu of confiscation such fine as the officer thinks fit. All this is for the enforcement of the levy of and safe guarding the recovery of the sea customs duties. There is no procedure prescribed to be followed by the matter of such ad the Customs Officer in judication and the Cus in any manner toms Officers are not assimilated whatever to proceedings in courts of law according to the provisions of the Civil or the Criminal 'l1he Customs Officers are not Procedure Code. required to act judicially on legal evidence tendered on oath and they are not authorised to administer oath to any witness. The appeals, if any, lie before the Chief Customs Authority which is the Central Board of Revenue and the power of revision is given to the Central Government which certainly is not a judicial authority. In the matter of the enforcement of the payment of penalty or increased rate of duty also the Customs Officer can only proceed against other goods of the party in the possession of the Customs Authorities. But if such penalty or increased rate of duty cannot be realised therefrom the only thing which he can do is to notify the matter to the appropriate Magistrate who is the only person em powered to enforce payment as if such penalby or the · proceedings before • , S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 743 v . d A h th M I9M . - . Magbool Huuain increased rate of duty had· been a fine inflicted by himself. The process of recovery can be issued only h C b b e ag1strate an not y t e ustoms ut onty. y All these provisions go to show that far from being Th• s;at• of authorities bound by any rules of evidence or proced- ure established by law and invested with power to enforce their own judgments or orders the Sea Cus- toms Authorities are merely constituted administrative machinery for the purpose of adjudging confiscation, increased rates of duty and penalty preseribed in functions and the Act. The same view of the powers of Sea Customs Officers was expressed in a decision of to which the Bombay High Court our attention was called. (See Mahadev Ganesh Jamsandekar v. The Secretary of State for India in Council('). Bhagwati J. Bombay. We are of the opinion that the Sea Customs Autho rities are not a judicial tribunal and the adjudging of confiscation, increased rate of duty or penalty under the provisions of the Sea Customs Act do not consti tute a judgment or order of a court or judicial tribu nal necessary for the purpose of supporting a plea of double jeopardy. It therefore follows that when the Customs Autho rities confiscated the gold in question neither the proceedings taken before the Sea Customs Autho rities constituted a prosecution of the appellant nor did the order of confiscation constitute a punishment inflicted by a court or judicial tribunal on the appel lant. The appellant could not be said by reason of these proceedings before the Sea Customs Autho rities to have l)een "prosecuted and punished" for the same offence with which he was charged before the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay, in the com plaint which was filed against him under section 23 of the Foreign Exchange .Regulation Act. The result therefore is that the appeal fails a.nd must be dismissed. Petitions Nos. 170, 171 and 172 of 1951. {I) 119221 I.L.R. 46 Bom. 732. 744 SUPHEME COURT REPORTS [1953j Moq Bombay. Bhagwati J. By an order of this Co.urt dated the·26th Novem- 1958 . her, 1952, these petitions were ordered to be heard by - b - 1 00 vHuss••• the Constitution Bench along with Criminal Appeal The s;ateof No. 81of1952, as the same point as regards "autre- fois convict" or "double jeopardy" was also involved therein. Jagjit Singh, Vidya Rattan and Parma Nand, the three petitioners in the respective petitions were detenus under the Preventive Detention Act, 1950, detained in the Central Jail, Ferozepur, and governed by the Punjab Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, framed by the Government of Punjab under section 4(a) of the Act. On the 6th J?ebruary, 1950, it is alleged, a general assault on jail officials was made by the detenus including J agjit Singh. An alarm was rung and the warder guard after some time overpowered the detenus who were responsible for the assault. Thirteen jail officials and twelve detenus sustained injuries and the detenus were all removed to cells. On the 7th February, 1950, the three detenu petitioners resorted to a hunger strike which continued upto the 10th April, 1950. They were separately confined from and after the 6th February, 1950. letters and interviews were stopped for two months with effect from the 7th February, 1950, and papers and books were stopped with effect from the 8th Feb ruary, 1950, for the duration of the hunger strike. The. hunger strike continued and they continu ed to be separately confined till the 10th April, 1950. It appears that more than H months after the hunger strike the Jail Superintendent, Shri K. K. Mattu, filed a complaint against .Jagjit ':iingh in the Court of Shri P. L. Soudhi, M.LC., Ferozepur, under rule 41(2) of the Punjab Communist · Detenus Rules charging him with having committed a jail offence in resorting to hunger strike. He also filed a complaint before the same Magistrate against Jagjit 8ingh for having committed offences under sections 332 and 353 and sections 147 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code. He further filed against Vidya Rattan and Parma Nand complaints under rule 41 (2) of the Pun jab Communist Datenus Rules for having committed· '!'heir S.C.R. SUPREME COUR'f REPORTS 745 . v. '"'""' 00 •q The state of Bombay. jail offenoe in resorting to hunger strike. On a. I91iB the 16th February. 1951, the three detenu petitioners M b lH filed before this Court petitions under article 32 of the Constitution asking for the issue of a writ of pro- hibition not to proceed with the prosecutions of the petitioners in the said cases on the ground that they had been prosecuted and punished for the same Bhagwati J. offence already by the Jail Superintendent and there- fore they could not be prosecuted and punished for the same offence once again and that the prosecutions which were launched against them in the Court of Shri P. L. Soudhi, M.I.C., Ferozepur, could not lie as being in contravention of the fundamental right guaranteed nuder article 20 (2) ·of the Constitution. J agjit Singh argued his own petition in person. Vidya Rattan had intimated to this Court tha.t he would be satisfied with the decision on Jagjit Singh's petition and wanted his absence to be excused. Parma Nand did not appear at t!:ie hearing even though notice of the hearing was served upon him. It was urged by Jagjit Singh that the proceedings Jail Superintendent which were adopted by against the petitioners amounted to their prosecution and punishment for the same offence and that there fore the prosecution which was now launched against them was not competent as it exposed them to double jeopardy and violated the fundamental right guaran teed to them nuder article 20(2). It was on the other hand urged by the Advocate-General of Punjab that the Jail Superintendent merely took disciplinary action against the petitioners and the punishment if any which was meted out to them was for breaches of discipline within the meaning of section 4(a) of the Act and the Punjab Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, framed thereunder, that there was no prosecution and punishment of the petitioners within the meaning of article 20(2) and that therefore the petitions were liable to be dismissed. Section 4 of the Preventive Detention Act, 1950 (Act No. IV of 1950), provides for power to regulate place and conditions of detention. · 746 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1953) " Every person in respect of whom· a detention 19sa - Magbooz Hussa,~.n v. . order has been made shall be liable- . (a) to be detained m such place and under such Th• State of conditions, including conditions as to maintenance, discipline and punishment for breaches of discipline, as the appropriate Government may, by general or ,, spema or er, spem y ........... . . l d Bhagwati J. Bombay. . f 'rhe Punjab Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, were framed by the Government of Punjab in exercise of the powers conferred by section 4 (a) of the Act. Rules 39, 40 and 41 provide for offences and punish ments. Rule 39 lays down certain rules of discipline and rule 40 provides.that any detenu who contravenes any of the provisions of rule 39 or refuses to obey any order issued thereunder, or does any of the acts ~entioned in the following portion cf the rule 40, vie.:- {i) assaults, insults, threatens or obstructs any fellow prisoner, any officer of the jail or any other Government servant, or any person employed in or visiting the jail, or .............. .. (xii-a) goes on hunger-strike (other than a token strike), or .......... shall be deemed to have committed a jail offence. Rule 41 is important and bears particularly on the question which we have to decide. It provides:- "(l) Where upon suoh enquiry as 3e thinks fit to make, the Superintendent is satisfied that a detenu is guilty of a jail offence, he may a.ward the detenu one or more of the following punishments :- (a) confinement in cells for a period not exceed ing 14 days ......... (d) cancellation or reduction, for a period not exceeding two months of the privilege of writing and receiving letters or of receiving newspapers and books, (e) cancellation or reduction, for a period not exceeding two months of the privilege of having in- ~erviews ........ , .. S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 747 (2) If any detenu is guilty of a jail offence which 19~ 8 v. " Bombay. by reason of his having frequently committed such M qboo!Hussain offences or otherwise is in the opinion of the Superin- tendent not adequately punishable by him under the Th• Stat• of provisions of sub-rule (1), he may forward such detenu to t'he Court of a Magistrate of the first class having jurisdiction, and such Magistra~e shall there- upon inquire into and try the charge so brought against the deteuu and upon conviction shall sentence him to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year: Provided that where the act coustit_utiug the offence constitutes an offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code with imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, nothing in this rule shall pre- clude the deteuu from being tried and sentenced for such offence in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Penal Code." Bhagwati J. It is clear from the above rules that the Jail Super intendent is constituted the authority for determining whether a detenu is guilty of a jail offence and for the award to such a deteuu of one or more of the punish If this punishment is ments prescribed in rule 41. considered to be a,dequate the Jail Superintendent is to award him the appropriate punishment. No proce dure is prescribed by the rules and the Superintend ent is not required to act only on evidence given on oath. He can punish after such enquiry as he thinks fit to make. Thus he may not take any evidence or, make any judicial enquiry at all but may yot punish. If however the detenn cannot in the opinion of the Ja.il Superintendent be adequately punished by him by reason of his having frequently committed such offence or otherwise the Jail Superintendent is em powered to forward such a detenu to the Court of a Magistrate of the First Class having jurisdiction and the jail offence in that case can be enquired into by the Magistrate who would try the charge brought against the deteuu, <;onvict him and sentence him to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year. Tbe proviso covers the cases where the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding 97 748 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1953) 1958 v. Bombay. Bhagwati J. Tho Stat• of provisions of the Indian Penal Code. one year under the India'.l Penal Code aHd nothing in Maqbooi Hu,,ain rule 41 is to preclude th,3 detenu from being tried and sentenced for such offence in accordance with the 'l'he whole scheme of rule 41 is to constitute the Jail Superin tendent only an administrative authority to maintain jail discipline and inflict summary punishment on the detenus for breach of that discipline by committing a It is only when the Jail Superintendent jail offence. considers that the offence is not adequately punish able .by him that he can send the case to the Magis If he actually himself punishes he cannot, trate. under this rule, refer the case again to the Magistrate. A reference by him after punishment will be wholly unauthorised and without jurisdiction and the prose cution before the Magistrate would be illegal and not in accordance with procedure established by law. It was contended that nuder sections 45, 46 and 52 of the Prisons Act ([X of 1894) the Jail Superintend ent was constituted an authority bound to act judi cially for the purposes of enquiry into and trial of the prisoners for similar offences and the detenus under the Punjab Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, being put in the same category as civil prisoners the proceedings before the Jail Superintendent for having committed the Jail offences under rules 40 and 41 above amounted to a prosecution of the petitioners It was on the before him as a judicial tribunal. other hand contended by the Advocate-General of Punjab that the Punjab Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, constituted a self-contained code regulating the place and conditions of detention of these detenus, that the aforesaid sections of the Prisons Act, 1894, had no application to their case and the proceedings which took place before the Jail Superintendent in the present case were therefore riot judicial proceed ings and there was no prosecution and punishment of the petitioners within the meaning of article 20 (2). We accept the contention of the Advocate General of Punjab. The petitioners were communist detenus and were governed by the Punjab Communist S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 749 1959 - Detenus Rutes, 1950, which were framed by Government of Punjab under section 4(a) of the Pre-- . ventive Detention Act set out above and which Maqbooi Hussain constituted the body of rules prescribing the condi- tions of their maintenance, discipline, etc. Their confinement in the prisons was for the sake of ad ministrative convenience and was also prescribed by Bhagwati J. the rules themselves and the provisions of the Prisons Act did not apply to them. It could not therefore be validly contended that the proceedings taken against the petitioners by the Jail Superintendent constituted a prosecution and punishment of the petitioners before a judicial tribunal. Tho ~~to of Bombay. . So far as the jail offence alleged to have been com mitted by reason of the petitioners having resorted to hunger strike was concerned, the Jail Superintendent obviously considered that he could adequately punish the petitioners for that jail offence and he did not think it necessary to have resort to the provisions of rule 41 (2) and forward the petitioners to the Court of the Magistrate without having himself dealt with them. It .is common ground that the Jail Superintend ent acted under rule 41 (1), and having satisfied him self that the petitioners were guilty of that jail offence awarded them one or more of the punishments therein prescribed, viz., stopping the letters and interviews for two months with effect from the 7th February, 1950, .and stopping the papers and books for the duration of the hunger strike. In our opinion this was tantamount to inflicting punishment on all the three petitioners for this jail offence and that having been done it was not competent to the Jail Superintendent after H months of the hunger strike to forward the petitioners to the Court of the Magistrate as he purported to do, and such reference was wholly unauthorised by the rule . and without jurisdiction and the prosecution before the Magistrate is obviously noi in accordance with procedure established by law and the petitioners may well complain of a breach or a threatened breach of the fundamental right guaranteed to them by article 21 of the Constitution in that the prosecution of 750 SUPREME COURT REPOR'l'S (1953] Magboo!Huss•in v. d d. Bombay. 1953 - petitioners before the Magistrate for the· jail offence . of having resorted to the hunger strike was not com- h y aw. petent a.ccor mg to t e proce ure esta 1s e Th• Stateof The Petitions Nos.171of1951and172 of 1951 filed by Vidya Hattan and Parma Nand must therefore be accepted rmd their prosecution in the Court of Shri Bh•gwati J, P. L. Sondhi, M.I.C., Ferozepnr, under rule 41(2) of the Punj~b Communist Detenus Rules, 1950, for having committed a jail offence in resorting to hunger strike must be quashed. bl. h db I The same order will also be passed in the petition of Jagjit Singh, being Petition No. 170 of 1951, in regard to the jail offence committed by him by having resorted to the hunger strike. Jagjit Singh however is being prosecuted in the Court of the Magistrate for having committed offences under sections 332 and 353 as also sections 147 and 149 of the Indian It waa contended by the Advocate Penal Code. there was no. prosecu General of Punjab tion and no punishment awarded to J agjit Singh in regard to these offences and he relied upon tile entries in the punishment register under the date 6th Febru ary, 1950, with reference to these offences. These entries in the punishment register show tha11 Jagjit Singh was not punished for any of these offonces but he was to be sent up for trial and in the meantime he was to be separately confined. Jagjit Singh on the other hand relied in particular on the evidence of Sher Singh who was the Assistant Superintendent of the Central Jail, Ferozepur, at all material times and his evidence would have helped Jagjit Singh considerably had it not been for the fact that the entries in the punishment register complete ly belie his version and he further states that J agjit Singh was punished not· only for the offence of assault but also rioting which could in no event have been done by the Jail Superintendent under the rules. So far as the prosecution under sections 147 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code is concerned that is an S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 751 1963 offence which' is not comprised in the jail offences enumerated iu rlile 40 nor could it have been dealt M b -~ . with by the Jail Superintendent under rule 41 (l). v ussa•n 'l'bat offence was moreover covered by the proviso to Th• s;.1, of rule 41(2) and was exclusively triable by the Ma.gist- rate. The prosecution of Jagjit Singh therefore be- fore the Magistrate for the offences under sections 332 Bhagwati J. and 353 and sections 147 and 149 of the Indian Pen11.l Code is not in violation of article 20 (2) or article 21 of the Constitution and must therefore proceed. Bombay. •g 00 The result therefore is that the Petition No. 170 of 1951 filed by Jagjit Singh will be allowed only to the extent that the appropriate writ of prohibition shall issue against the respondent in regard to his prosecution for having committed a jail offence in resorting to hunger strike, but bis prosecution under sections' 332 and 353 and sections 147 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code will not be affected by this order. 'l'he Petitions Nos. 171of1951and172 of 1951 filed by Vidya Rattan and Parma Nand respectively 'will be accepted and the appropriate writs of prohibition shall issue against the respondent as prayed for therein. Appeal No. 81 dismissed. Petitions Nos. 171 and 172 allowed. Petition No. 170 partly lillowed. Agent for the appellant m Criminal Appeal No. 81: P. K. Chatterjee. Agent for the respondent in Criminal Appeal No. 81 and Petitions Nos. 170, 171 & 172: G. K. Raj adhyaksha.