Judgement

Appeal (No. 1 of 1944), by leave of the Federal Court of India, from a judgment of that court (June 4, 1943), which affirmed by a majority a judgment and order of the High Court at Calcutta (April 21, 1943), passed in the exercise of its criminal re visional jurisdiction. By their judgment the High Court, on the sole ground that certain provisions contained in the Special Criminal Courts Ordinance, No. II., of 1942, were ultra vires the Governor-General of India, set aside the convictions of the fifteen respondents to this appeal, all police constables, by the special magistrate at Jessore (being a special court constituted under the ordinance) on charges of, inter alia, rioting, assault on a police officer and committing prejudicial acts tending to cause disaffection in the police force. A sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment was imposed on each of them. The High Court ordered the respondents to be released and re-arrested and tried in the ordinary courts according to ordinary process of law.

The question for determination in this appeal was whether or not the Governor-General was empowered by s. 72 of the Government of India Act, 1935, as set out in sched. IX the