This Rule was issued on the District Magistrate of Mozufferpore to show cause why the convictions of the Petitioners Bissar Miser and Moti Misser under secs. 332 and 353 of the Penal Code respectively should not be set aside in view of the decision of this Court in the case of Baijrangi v. Emperor(1) and why the sentence passed on the Petitioner Rameswar Misser under sec. 342 of the Penal Code should not be revised.

The facts found are thus stated in the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge on appeal:—

“A Sub-Inspector of Police, who is the complainant in this case, went with Biseswar Marwari to search the house of a servant of his, one Sirjawan Misser, whom he had charged with criminal breach of trust in respect of a sum of Rs. 390. The object of the search was to discover the money, and a bag in which it was contained. A house was pointed out to the Sub-Inspector by Biseswar as that of Sirjawan. The Sub-Inspector called two residents of the village and one resident of a neighbouring one, who were close at hand, to attend as search witnesses and proceeded to search the house. One Santosh Misser, who has also been convicted in this case, went b;fore the search into the house and removed the females. When one room had been searched and the search of a second had begun, the three Appellants came into the house and told the Sub-Inspector to get out or they would insult him. Biseswar Misser was carrying a sickle. Words were exchanged and a scuffle followed in the course of which Biseswar cut the Sub-Inspector on the hand with his sickle. Moti Misser knocked him down and Rameswar Misser and the other three accused administered a beating to Biseswar.”

The only additional facts which need be stated are that Sirjawan had been arrested before the search took place, that the house searched belonged to him and his brothers, the Petitioners Bissar and Moti Misser, and that Biseswar was shut into a room prior to his being assaulted.

As to the convictions under secs. 332 and 353 and the case of Baijrangi v. Emperor, there appears to be some misunderstanding as to what was actually decided in that case. No doubt some of the observations of the learned Judges (Holmwood and Sharfuddin, JJ.) suggest that they were at the time disposed to take the view that sec. 94 of the Code (upon which the power to search conferred by sec. 165 in some degree depends) “does not refer to stolen articles or to any incriminating document or thing in the possession of an accused person”. But in the first place, that proposition in the wide form in which it is stated is not supported by the case to which reference was made [Ishwar v. Emperor(2)]. In the latter case the facts were peculiar. An accused person who was actually on his trial for offences under secs. 471 and 193 was called upon to produce a document, the document was not produced, and because it was not produced the prosecution failed. The accused was then prosecuted and convicted under sec. 175 of the Penal Code for disobedience to the order to produce the document. All that was held was that sec. 94 of the Criminal Procedure Code did not apply to the case of an accused person on his trial. The last three words are not without importance so as to render him liable to punishment under sec. 175 of the Penal Code for the omission to produce a document which he had been directed to produce by an order made during the course of the trial under the former section. That is a very different thing from saying that the person or house of the accused could not have been searched for the document either before or during the trial. In this connection reference may be made to the case of The Eizam of Hyderabad v. Jacob(3). In the second place, the learned Judges expressly guarded themselves from expressing a final opinion on the point. What they said was that in the case before them it was “sufficient to hold that sec. 165 did not authorize a search for stolen property in the house of the absconding offender” and that, remarkable as it might appear, there was no other section which would cover such a search. Now as it seems to us, the words which it was intended to emphasize were the words “stolen property” and not the words which follow “in the house of the absconding offender”. The particular objection to the search which the learned Judges had in their minis, was not that the search was made in the house of an accused person but that the search was made for stolen property generally whereas under sec. 165 a search might only be made for a particular document or thing. That this is the true meaning of the language employed appears to be clear from what is said just before, that sec. 165 “does not authorise a general search for stolen property” and also from the way in which the case is referred to in the subsequent case of Prankhang v. Emperor(4) decided by the same learned Judges. The language there used is perfectly explicit and free from ambiguity. The learned Judges say that the opinion had apparently been entertained that the ruling in Baijrangi's case “if it intended to lay down that a police officer is not empowered to search an accused's house for stolen property relevant to the case, is not a correct statement of the law” and they dispose of that opinion as follows:—“we desire again to point out that the law does not empower a police officer to search an accused's house for anything but the specific article which has been or can be made the subject of summons or warrant to produce. A general search for stolen property is not authorized and the law cannot be got over by using such an expression as ‘stolen property relevant to the case’. Such expressions are vague and misleading and the terms of the law are extremely specific”. This passage is meaningless unless there is some right to search the house of an accused person.

Considered in their true light the three recent cases which we have cited lend no real colour to the contention, that the powers conferred by secs. 94 and 165 of the Criminal Procedure Code do not extend to accused persons. The contention, moreover, is plainly opposed to the ruling of this Court in the earlier case of Mahomed Jackariah v. Ahmed Mahomed(5) which was not brought to the notice of the Court in Baijrangi's case and where the law was, fully dealt with in the separate judgments delivered by Norris and Ghose, JJ. Referring to sec. 94 of the Code of 1882, which differs in no material respect from the present Code, Norris, J., remarked (p. 122) that the words of the section “are of the widest possible character”. Ghose, J., dealt historically and exhaustively with the precise point before us and his conclusion is thus expressed (pages 140 and 141): “It will be observed that the law, so far as the immediate subject before us is concerned, is prac ically the same as it was in 1872; and there can, I think, be no doubt that the Legislature intended, as I have already observed, that an accused person might be compelled to produce evidence against himself; and reading the above sections (i.e, secs. 94-99) with Sch. V, No. VIII of the Criminal Procedure Code, the only safeguards, as far as I can see, which the Legislature provides are: 1st, that the document called for, or in regard to which a search warrant is issued, must be distinctly specified; 2nd, that the documents are necessary for the purpose of the inquiry; and, 3rd, that while granting a search warrant, the Magistrate must exercise his judicial discretion, and that he should not make such an order unless the materials before him justify him in so doing”. No doubt Ghose, J., referred to proceedings in the Legislative Council in accordance with a practice which has since been authoritatively declared to be inadmissable but the reasoning derives little additional force from what was said in Council. The conclusion really rests upon the wide words of the Code itself.

The safeguard which, as it appears to us, was insisted on in Baijrangi's case and Prankhang's case was the first of the safeguards mentioned by Ghose, J.

When a burglary or dacoity is committed, information is usually laid at the thana and a list of the articles stolen is supplied or taken down in writing. The Police then make an investigation in the course of which the houses of suspected, absconding or arrested offenders are or may be searched for the specific articles comprised in the list. So far as we are aware, since Ahmed Mahomed's case was decided, up till now, the legality of searches made in such circumstances has never been seriously disputed in this or any other Province. The question so far as it depends upon the terms of sec. 94 does appear to have been raised by Counsel (Mr. Mon Mohan Ghose) in Jacob's case above cited. The argument was not noticed by Beverley, J., and was summarily dealt with by Ameer Ali, J., who described the proposition “that the Magistrate had absolutely no power to call either upon the accused or upon his bailee for the production of anything connected with the offence as a somewhat startling proposition” and went on to point out, in language similar to that of Norris, J., “that the words of sec. 94 are very large.”

In the present case, as we have said, Sitjawan was arrested before his house was searched. In regard to that we may add that from the cases cited by Norris, J. in Mahomed Jackatiah v. Ahmed Mahomed, it would appear that the right to search the person and premises of an accused person who has been lawfully arrested is recognized in England and that the search may be not only for specified articles but generally for incriminating evidence. In India the power to search an arrested person is provided for by sec. 51 of the Code and sec. 523 seems to recognize the right of any police officer to seize property “alleged or suspected to have been stolen or found under circumstances which create suspicion of the commission of any offence”. That section, it will be observed, does not expressly confer a right to search the premises of an arrested person. But however that may be, in the view which we take of the meaning of secs. 94 and 165, it is unnecessary for us for the purposes of the present case to pursue the inquiry further.

In our opinion the search of Sirjawan's house is covered by the provisions of sec. 165. We also agree with the Sessions Judge that in the circumstances the sentences passed on the Petitioners are not too severe.

The Rule must accordingly be discharged and the Petitioners muse serve out their sentences.

Rule discharged.