Judgement

Appeal (No. 31 of 1942), by special leave, from a judgment of the High Court (November 14, 1941) by which the appellants were found guilty of contempt of court.

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee The first two appellants, Debi Prasad Sharma and Deva Das Gandhi, were respectively the printer and publisher and the editor of the Hindustan Times, a daily newspaper published in Delhi and having a large circulation in the United Provinces. The third appellant, Radhe Lal Singhal, was the local correspondent of the newspaper at Meerut, and at the material date had been so employed for the past seven years. In July, 1941, the Sessions Judge at Meerut, Mr. Hari Shankar Vidyarthi, had been engaged in the trial of twenty persons charged with murder, rioting, etc., which ended oh July 31, 1941, when the judge convicted four of the accused and sentenced them to transportation for life. The remaining sixteen were acquitted. On August 1 the third appellant sent the following news item to the newspaper "(F.O.C.) Meerut, August 1. With the judicial "officers also now co-operating actively in the war efforts,” the efforts are bound to receive a heavy p