1. THE petitioner in this case is a rate-payer and a registered voter of the Corporation of Calcutta in its constituency No. 50. The petitioner No. 2 is a councilor of the Corporation. The respondent No. 4, as the Secretary to the Corporation, issued and Circulated among the members of the Corporation of Calcutta, agenda No. 12 in respect of a meeting, being the 9th ordinary meeting, to be held on the 19th June, 1959. The said agenda included a notice of a proposed resolution to be moved by a councilor, Sri Biman Behari Mitra, being item No. 15. A copy of the proposed resolution has been annexed to the petition and marked with the letter "a". A translation of the said resolution is set out below:-

"every inhabitant of India is specially worried about the recent happenings in Kerala. It is highly regrettable that the Government of Kerala under the guise of public welfare has for the purposes of suppression of a peaceful mass movement, effected police firing on members of the public, as a result of which, 5 persons have been killed and 32 injured. This meeting protests against the policy pursued by the Government in Kerala which is undemocratic, reactionary and is against the