JUDGMENT - TARKUNDE, J. :

Two interesting questions of law arise in the case. One is whether police officers are empowered by law in the case of a person suspected or accused of an offence under the Bombay Prohibition Act, to take that person, against his will, to a doctor for medical examination. The second question arises if the first is answered in the negative, and that question is whether such a person can lawfully exercise the right of private defence against the force sought to be used in taking him to a doctor.

(2) This being a criminal revision application the facts are no longer in dispute. The petitioner, who will be referred to hereafter as the accused, is a resident of Satana in the Nasik District. On the date of the offence, information was received at the police station at Satana that the accused was behaving in a disorderly manner in a public street under the influence of drink. Thereupon some police constables went to the spot and brought the accused to the police station. They tried to make a panchnama about the physical condition of the accused, but could not get any panchas. Then head constable Wagh, who appears to have been in charge of the police station, asked

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