1. What may be called the ruling political parties of this State, headed by the Left Communist Party, called what they called a Kerala Bandh for the 11th of September last in pursuance of a policy of mass agitation against the Central Government. All normal business, whether public or private, was to be suspended throughout the State the State Government declared that day a public holiday. The Bandh was opposed by the political parties not in office, principally by the Congress and the Jan Sangh; and, in the midst of all this, one apprehends that the common man (of common sense and common sensibility), whose name was, of course, freely invoked by both sides, only wished to be left alone to go about his lawful business. The result was that there were clashes in various parts of the State between those who, whether by force or show of force or mere sweet reasonableness, wished to ensure observance of the Bandh and those who, in like or unlike measure, resisted their "persuasion". In the course of such a clash on the morning of the 11th in the village of Kuttoor, near Cannanore, two Left Communist workers Karunakaran and Kunhikannan by name suffered stab injuries to which