The main legal point established in the judgment is that the initiation of proceedings under Section 107, Criminal Procedure Code, requires fresh materials to justify them and must be done by a Magistrate with the appropriate authority as specified in the provisions of the section.

1. In this case notice has been issued by the Headquarters Deputy Magistrate of Nellore calling on the petitioners to show cause why they should not give security under Section 107, Criminal Procedure Code. The matter has a long history. It appears that in the village of Kaluvoy there are two factions, one headed by the first petitioner Nagireddy Konda Reddy who has under his protection a number of Muhammadans, some of whom are also petitioners in this matter, and on the other side are the rest of the influential Hindus of that locality. For some time there has been a dispute as regards the right to play music during the Mohurrum before the Hindu temples. On the other hand, the Hindus claim the right to play music during their festivals before the local mosque. There seems to be also a private quarrel between the first petitioner on the one side and some of the other leading Hindu residents of that village on the other. There have been a number of cases and proceedings going on since 1914 between the parties and strange to say, in all these cases the persons accused of the offences were either acquitted or discharged and the proceedings taken under Section 107 fell through. These proceedings now in question are the last of the series. Two objections are taken to them. The first is that the facts and the information upon which the proceedings were had, had already been the subject of enquiry in previous proceedings under Section 107 and also in certain criminal charges, and that in those proceedings and charges the present petitioners were discharged. This is undoubtedly so and further, it is clear, that there are no fresh materials of any importance available on which it could be said that fresh apprehension arose of a breach of the peace being committed by the petitioners. It is also a fact, that since at least September 1916 when the Police applied for proceedings to be taken under Section 107 there has been no breach of the peace. We are quite clear that the Magistrate was not entitled to initiate proceedings upon facts and information which had already been the subject of enquiry under Section 107, or in connexion with. charges under the Penal Code brought against the petitioners. The same facts cannot form the subject of repeated proceedings either under the Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code. If fresh facts had occurred upon which the Police and the Magistrate were apprehensive that there was a likelihood of a breach of the peace, then, there would have been justification for the initiation of proceedings under Section 107. If there had been any such information forthcoming, it was the duty of the Magistrate to set out the substance of such information in the proceedings, but on looking at the preliminary order we find that the information therein referred to is only what had already been before other Magistrates in connexion with other proceedings and had been the subject of orders which must be taken to be final so far as those matters are concerned. The wording of the notice we may also point out in passing is vague to a degree. All that is stated there is that "seven persons headed by Nagireddy Konda Reddy, the first accused, a rich and influential resident of Kaluvoy, and others are addicted to crimes of violence involving a breach of the peace and threatened injury to the lives and property of several persons and there is an imminent danger of a breach of the peace." It does not at all state when these threats were uttered, who are the persons who were threatened and when this apprehension of a breach of the peace arose. We think that the above objection is good in law and the proceedings must be quashed on that ground.

2. But there is also another valid objection to these proceedings. Under Section 107, Criminal Procedure Code, it is the District Magistrate or Subdivisional Magistrate or any Magistrate of the first class, who is informed that a person is likely to commit a breach of the peace, that may