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1952 Supreme(Raj) 245

Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench
Ranawat & Dave, JJ.
Madanlal Kapur - Appellant
Versus
The State of Rajasthan - Respondents
C. Writ Application No. 50 of 1952
Decided On : October 22, 1952

Advocates Appeared:
R.K. Rastogi, for Petitioner; C.B. Bhargava, Deputy Government Advocate

Headnote:Constitution of India, Art. 19(g)(6) Court to examine reasonableness of substantive as well as procedural aspects of law—Notice to show cause—Emergent cases—Person to be given opportu-nity after order is made.Rajasthan Dramatic performances and Entertainments Ordinance, 1949, sec. 3— Terms "deprave" and corrupt" not vague—Terms to be understood having regards to ordinary moral standards of society ].Rajasthan Dramatic Performances and Entertainments Ordinance, 1949, secs. 3, 4, 6, 8 — Sections cannot be enforced unless procedural rules are made.Constitution of India, Art. 226—Contemplated action by authority — Petition to High Court not premature.

       What is reasonable in the meaning of sub-clause (6) of Art. 19 has to be decided by a court of law and in doing so the court has got to see both the substantive as well as procedural aspects of the question.

       The essential requirements of procedural aspects ordinarily are;

       (1) that a notice should be given to the person against whom an order is made, (2) that an opportunity should be allowed to him to make a representation, (3) that there should be some authority or tribunal (not necessarily judicial) to consider the representation, if any, made by the person against whom an order is made..

       There may be cases of emergency where it may not be possible to give notice to a person before making an order against him but after such an action is taken there appears to be no reason why the person against whom the order is made should be deprived of an opportunity of making his representation to enable him to show that the act complained of did not fall within the provisions of the law or that the requirements of the law were not fulfilled.

       So long as no procedure is prescribed by rules under sec. 11 of the Ordinance regarding issue of notice, an opportunity of making representation and an authority or tribunal to consider it the provisions of secs. 3, 4, 6 and 8 of the Ordinance cannot be regarded as enforceable because they do not come within the limits of reasonableness of sub-clause (6) of Article 19 of the Constitution.

Ranawat, J. —These are two applications by Madanlal Kapur under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, one of them is directed against the District Magistrate of Kotah and others, and the other against the District Magistrate of Jaipur.

2. The facts leading to both these applications are to a very large extent similar and this is why we are disposing them of together by one judgment.

3. In writ application No. 50 of 1952 the petitioner has also impleaded along with the District Magistrate of Kotah the State of Rajasthan and the Superintendent of Police, Kotah, as the opposite parties. In the other application he has however contended himself by impleading the District Magistrate of Jaipur only. His case in petition No. 50 is that he wanted to run a Variety Show and to organise certain games along with it at Kotah for profit, to which the public was to be allowed access. He commenced the show on the 21st of Aprill952 at Kotah under the name of Jai Hind Variety Show and two items of his performance were of shooting by pistol from a distance of 12 ft. at numbers or colours marked on a Board. The persons who attempted to undertake pistol shooting were given the choice of selecting the number or colour of target and if they successfully took the target they were paid double the amount deposited by them as a fee. It is said he also started the same type of Show at Baran on or about the 1st of April 1955 but the District Magistrate of Kotah passed an order on the 23rd of April 1952 prohibiting the performance of the game of pistol shooting at Baran without first allowing any opportunity to the petitioner of being heard. The petitioner came to know about the existence of that order only when the order was served upon him on the 26th of April 1952. Similarly on the 28th of April .1952 it is said the District, Magistrate of Kotah prohibited him from performing the games of pistol shooting at Kotah on the ground that these games depraved and corrupted the persons present at the show. The performances of the petitioner were stopped by the police under the aforesaid orders of the District Magistrate. It is claimed that secs. 3, 4, 6 and 8 of the Rajasthan Dramatic Performances and Entertainments Ordinance, 1949 (XXIX of 1949), hereinafter referred to as the Ordinance, are inconsistent with the provisions of Art. 19(g) of the Constitution of India. Under the Ordinance there is no provision for allowing an opportunity to the person against whom an order under sec. 3 is made of representing his case before an impartial tribunal or authority. It was therefore prayed that the provisions of the Ordinance in question as contained in secs. 3, 4, 6 and 8 be declared ultra vires of the Constitution and the opposite parties be restrained by an appropriate writ or direction from interfering with the performance of the games by the petitioner both at Kotah and Baran or elsewhere.

4. In the other case, which is against the District Magistrate of Jaipur, as yet no order has been made restraining the petitioner from performing any games but he has simply been served with a notice to show cause why an order under sec. 3 of the Ordinance be not made against him restraining him from performing the games of pistol shooting.

5. In the case against the District Magistrate of Kotah no reply has been filed on behalf of any one of the opposite parties, whereas a reply has been filed by the District Magistrate of Jaipur in the other case. It was stated that a notice was served on the petitioner asking him to show cause why an order under sec. 3 of the Ordinance be not made against him and it was stated that a number of verbal complaints and representations on behalf of the citizens of Jaipur were received by the District Magistrate to the effect that the petitioner was having certain games of pistol shooting which were merely games of chance and were likely to deprave and corrupt persons, which led the aforesaid authority to issue a notice against the petitioner. Th






























































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