“ I
will do it again “ – K.M.Munshi
The Chief Justice
Beaumont was a severe critic of the Govt and
whenever he could find an opportunity
he would readily lambaste the
Govt. His armoury of strictures ,
criticism and taunts was ever ready for
this pious task !
Communal
riots in Bombay took place in 1938
.. K.M.Munshi was Home Minister
of Bombay State then. Certain news papers were publishing the names of the
killed persons , exposing the identity of their community , soon reading the
names both the communities got
agitated and were boiling with a sense
of revenge. This added fuel to the fire and riots once started did not
abate.The Govt was very much embarrassed and wanted to put an end to the
riots at the earliest.
Govt. warned
some news papers, some followed the hint
and stopped publishing the names of the killed persons, but some were adamant
and did not fall in line. As a result ,
the Govt asked the Dist. Magistrate to promulgate imposition of censorship on
all papers, under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code , this was done,
censorship was imposed and the censorship had a
salutary effect, the communal riots stopped within 3 days. As the riots
had stopped, there was no necessity for its continuance and so the censorship
was withdrawn.
In spite of
this, one news paper challenged the order of censorship in the Bombay High Court
. In course of hearing , the CJ criticized the Govt in undue harsh words in the judgement and declared it illegal.
The CJ and
Munshi met during a social engagement ,
when the Chief Justice told Munshi in
a posture of a victor that “ Munshi , I declared your order under sec 144
illegal “ .
Munshi was
not perturbed and told
Chief justice, “ If the riots will
commence again , I will not hesitate to declare censorship again and
again. My duty is to maintain law and
order. Your duty starts when law and order is restored. You , the judiciary , will work only if the law and order is maintained. “
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