Panchapakesa Ayyar, J. — This is a reference made to this Court under section 432 of the Criminal Procedure Code by the Second Presidency Magistrate in M.P. No. 329 of 1958 in C.C. No. 184 of 1958 at the instance of the accused, C. N. Annadurai, leader of the D.M. K. and ten others. These eleven persons were charged in that case for having committed an offence punishable under:section 41 of the City Police Act. The case of the prosecution was that the accused had committed the offence by having proceeded towards the Triplicane beach on 3rd January, 1958, to conduct a public meeting in defiance of the order of the Commissioner of Police, Madras, dated 31st December, 1957, banning all meetings in the city except certain specified categories of meetings which could be held without a license and meetings for which license had been given by the Commissioner of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police, etc., and subject to the conditions of the licenses. The accused had proposed to hold a public meeting at Triplicane beach on the 3rd January, 1958, at 6 p.m. on behalf of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and had applied to the Commissioner for permission to hold the meeting, under clause (1) of his order dated 31st July, 1957. The order, dated 31st July, 1957, prohibiting public meetings, except those covered by licenses and those allowed specifically, was passed because of reliable information received by the Commissioner, that leaders and volunteers of the Dravida Kazhagam had, in pursuance of their earlier decision to erase the word “Brahmin” from the name-boards of hotels, and to take out processions and assemble in front -of such hotels in the City of Madras for the purpose of picketing, resolved to intensify their campaign from 1st August, 1957, through processions, assemblies, picketing, going together in batches, etc., and because of reliable information received by the Commissioner that the Tamilnadu Socialist Party had proposed to launch a state-wide agitation from 1st August, 1957 in support of its eighteen-points charter of demands by taking out processions, assemblies, etc., and picketing in front of the residences of ministers and government officers and in front of police stations, and because the Commissioner apprehended that the situation caused by the actions of the Dravida Kazhagam and the Tamilnadu Socialist Party might be exploited by the antisocial and hooligan elements in the city resulting in acts of mischief and violence leading to rioting and the disturbance of public tranquillity and breach of the peace, and he considered that it was necessary for the preservation of public peace and public safety to prohibit assemblies and processions for the purposes mentioned above and also for any other purposes involving a general unrest affecting the maintenance of communications and supply of services essential to the community in the City of Madras. This order of the Commissioner was passed under section 41 of the City Police Act, and it was made applicable to all assemblies and processions in any street, road, thoroughfare or other public place within the limits of the City of Madras during the period commencing from 1st August, 1957, and ending with 14th August, 1957, both days inclusive. On receiving the application of the accused for holding a meeting on 3rd January, 1958, the Commissioner called for a report from his subordinate and he received a report that in view of the decision -of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to hold black flag demonstrations, etc., against Prime Minister Nehru, it was not desirable to permit the meeting at Tilak Ghat on the 3rd January on the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit to Madras. In view of such report, the Commissioner passed an order refusing the permission for the meeting on the ground that if it was permitted at Tilak Ghat that day the Dravida. Munnetra Kazhagam leaders were likely to exhort the audience to acts of violence at the time of the Prime Minister’s visit and there was

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