The definition of "procession" under the Bihar Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1949, requires an element of organized march or formal march.

Jamuar, J.

1. These three applications have been heard together, as a common point arises in them. The petitioners have been convicted under Section 9(4), Bihar Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1949, and variously sentenced. It appears that permission had been obtained from the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi to hold a meeting of the Adibasi Mahasabha. In Criminal Revision 600, the meeting was to be held on 12-11-1949, in the afternoon, at village Sonpurgarh, in Criminal Revision 601, the meeting was to be held on 15-11-1949 at village Raniya; and, in Criminal Revision 602, the meeting was to be held on 14-11-1949, at village Tapkara. The three villages are within the jurisdiction of Torpa Police Station in the district of Ranchi. The permission granted by the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi to hold the various meetings made it a condition that no firearms, bows, arrows or other lethal weapons would be carried in the meetings.

2. The petitioners in the three applications were prosecuted on two charges, firstly, for having committed a breach of the condition mentioned in the permit to hold the meeting by carrying bows and arrows, and, secondly, for having contravened a notification No. 17716-C., dated 25-6-1949, published in the Bihar Gazette of the same date. This notification was made in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (1) of Sec. 6, Bihar Maintenance of Public Order (No. 2) Ordinance, 1949, and directed that no public meeting or procession shall be held without the permission of the District Magistrate or the Additional District Magistrate of the district. The prosecution alleged in all the three cases that, in contravention of this notification, the petitioners had led a procession to the meeting ground.

3. The petitioners in the three applications were tried at separate trials. The petitioners have been acquitted of the charge that they had broken the condition of the permit by carrying bows and arrows, on the ground that there was no evidence that these petitioners had carried bows or arrows. They have, however, been convicted for having led a procession to the meeting ground in breach of the notification mentioned above.

4. Mr. Basanta Chandra Ghosh, who has appeared in support of all these three applications, has raised a common point that in none of the three cases there was any evidence before the Magistrate to conic to the conclusion that there had been held any procession at all on those dates. The evidence given at the trial of the three cases was that the petitioners had led a "procession" and nothing more. This evidence in Criminal Revision 600 was given by a constable and a Sub-Inspector, in Criminal Revision 601 by a Sub-Inspector, a constable and a chaukidar, and in Criminal Revision 602 by a Sub-Deputy Magistrate, a Sub-Inspector and a constable. Mr. Ghosh contended that there should be some material on the record to enable a Court to come to a finding that there was, in fact, a procession, and that the Magistrate ought not to have accepted the mere ipse dixit of the witnesses that there was a procession.

In order to find that there was a procession, it is necessary to find the ingredients of a procession. The term "procession" has not received any statutory definition. Guidance, therefore, has to be taken from the dictionary meaning of the term as also from the observations made in decided cases. The Court of appeal below has itself quoted the definition of the word "procession" as found in dictionaries. It has noticed that, in the Chambers Dictionary, the word "procession" has been defined as "a train of persons in a formal march", and, in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the term has been defined as "a proceeding of body of persons in orderly succession." None of these elements constituting a procession was deposed to at the trial as having been present; but the Court of appeal below was of the opinion that, in view of the definitions which it has cited, it was easy for the witnesses to h