SIR W. WEDDERBURNI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether a Bill, recently passed in the Vieeregal Council to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure, contains a provision which makes owners and occupiers of land and their agents liable to imprisonment for one month, or a fine of Rs.500, if they fail to report to the police or a Magistrate the intention to form an unlawful assembly; whether, under the Indian Penal Code, an unlawful assembly would be formed if five persons came together with the intention of enforcing a claim or committing an offence, however petty; whether the Commissioners of Rajshaye and Chittagong, and other officials of experience, together with the leading Indian Associations in Calcutta, have protested against this innovation, pointing out that such an enactment is uncalled for and goes beyond the law existing in any other country; whether the Behar Indigo Planters' Association, in a Memorial to the Government of India, has expressed an opinion that the existing law is sufficient to maintain order, if properly administered; whether the High Court of Calcutta has expressed disapproval of this provision, stating that, having regard to the definition of the offence, private persons, animated by the best intentions, and acting with all due care and attention, would find it difficult to discharge the duty which it is intended to impose upon them; and whether he, on a consideration of these circumstances, will disallow the provision complained of?
MR. H. H. FOWLERA copy of the enactment to which my hon. Friend's question refers has been forwarded to me in accordance with the law, but I am not yet able to say what course the Secretary of State in Council may take 223 with regard to it. The various points to which the question refers will he duly considered before any decision is arrived at.