India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947; India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
Now it is evident that after such legislation all liberty of speech and
action becomes extinct. These recommendations will we fear directly lead
to secret propaganda and secret action.
Under the head of emergency punitive measures the committee recommends:
Emergency Provisions for Trials. Coming now to the measures
themselves, we are of opinion that provision should be made for
the trial of seditious crime by Benches of three Judges without
juries or assessors and without preliminary commitment proceedings
or appeal. In short, the procedure we recommend should follow the
lines laid down in sections 5-9 inclusive of the Defence of India
Act. It should be made clear that section 512 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure (relating to the giving in evidence under
certain circumstances of depositions taken in the absence of an
absconding accused) applies to these trials, it having, we
understand, been questioned whether section 7 of the Defence of
India Act has that effect.
We think it necessary to exclude juries and assessors mainly
because of the terrorism to which they are liable. But terrorism
apart, we do not think that they can be relied upon in this class
of cases. They are too much inclined to be affected by public
discussion.
We omit the detailed discussion of these provisions in which the
committee has attempted to soften the sting of these recommendations by
giving their reasons and by suggesting certain safeguards against their
abuse. The most startling of their recommendations are however made
under the head of emergency preventive measures.
Emergency Preventive Measures. We have been forced to the
conclusion that it is necessary, in order to keep the conspiracies
already described under control in the future, to provide for the
continuance after the expiry of the Defence of India Act (though
in the contingent form explained and under important limitations)
of some of the powers which that measure introduced in a temporary
form. By those means alone has the conspiracy been paralysed for
the present and we are unable to devise any expedient operating
according to strict judicial forms which can be relied upon to
prevent its reviving to check it if it does revive, or, in the
last resort, to suppress it anew. This will involve some
infringement of the rules normally safeguarding the liberty of the
subject. We have endeavored to make that infringement as small as
we think possible consistently with the production of an effective
scheme.
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