{"id":1108,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:35","slug":"52-the-alipur-judgement-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/52-the-alipur-judgement-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-52_The Alipur Judgement.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nThe Alipur Judgment<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/b><\/font>HE
\n<\/b><\/span>judgment of the Appeal Court in the Alipur Case
\nhas resulted in the reduction of sentences to a greater or less extent in all
\nbut two notable instances, and on the other hand, the maintenance of the
\nfinding of the Lower Court in all but six cases, on five of which there is a
\ndifference of opinion between the Chief Justice and Justice Carnduff. So long as these cases are still sub judice<\/i>, we reserve our general comments on the
\ntrial. At present we can only offer a few remarks on special features of the
\njudgment. The acquittal of the Maratha, Hari Balkrishna Kane,
\nmust give universal satisfaction, as his conviction in the absence of any
\nevidence in the least establishing his guilt would have been a gross
\nmiscarriage of justice. The rejection of Section 121 and the consequent
\nelimination of the death sentences is also a result on which the Government and
\nthe country may both be congratulated. Even in the case of actual political
\nassassins the infliction of the death sentences, however legally justifiable,
\nis bad policy. Death sentences for political crimes only provide martyrs to a
\nrevolutionary cause, nerve the violent to fresh acts of vengeance and
\nterrorism, and create through the liberation of the spirits of the dead men a
\npsychical force making for further unrest and those passions of political
\nrevolt and fierceness to which they were attached in life. The prolongation of
\nterrorism is undesirable in the interests of the country; for, so long as young
\nmen are attached to these methods of violence, the efforts of a more orderly
\nthough not less strenuous Nationalism to organise and spread itself must be
\nseriously hampered. <\/b> We are glad to note that the Chief Justice has in no
\ncase condemned and accused on the evidence of the watch-witnesses alone. Such
\nevidence is always suspect in the eyes of the people of this country and the
\ngross blunders, if they were no worse, committed by several of the police
\nwitnesses in this case deprive their identifications of all evidential value.
\nOnce the confessions were admitted as entirely voluntary and entirely true,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 287<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe
\nfate of the confessing prisoners and of those directly implicated by them as
\nactive members of the society was a foregone conclusion. The conviction of an
\naccused on such a serious charge when there is no clear incriminating evidence
\nagainst him except the confessions of others, is no doubt permissible under
\nordinary jurisprudence when these confessions create a moral certainty in the
\nmind of the judge; but if this rule
\nsometimes prevents the escape of the guilty, it not seldom lends itself to the
\npunishment of the innocent. Of more importance, however, and the one serious
\nflaw we are disposed to find in the Chief Justice’s judgment, is the
\nexaggerated importance attached to familiarity and intimacy between the leaders
\nof the conspiracy and those whose guilt was open to doubt. When there is a
\nsecret conspiracy, it is inevitable that there should be numbers of men
\nintimately associated with the members, perhaps even co-operating with them in
\nsurface political action, who are yet in entire ignorance of the close and
\ndangerous proceedings of their friends. It was a recognition of this obvious
\nfact that largely governed Mr. Beachcroft’s
\nfindings; but we cannot help feeling that
\nneither he nor the Appeal Court, ignorant, like all Englishmen, of the actual
\nworkings of the National Movement, have given sufficient weight to this
\nconsideration. As a result, the benefit of the doubt has not been extended
\nwhere it should have been extended. Already it was a general conviction in the
\npublic mind that one innocent man had been convicted and succumbed to the
\nrigours of jail life, while two are hopelessly condemned to the brutal and brutifying punishments by which European society
\navenges itself on the breakers of its laws, \u2014 we refer to the Kabiraj brothers found by Mr. Beachcroft to be innocent of conspiracy and
\ntherefore presumably innocent tools of conspirators. There is an uneasy sense
\nthat some at least have been added to the list by the judgment in appeal. Even
\nif it be so, however, the judges have done their best, and the European legal
\nsystem has always been a lottery by which it is easy, without any fault on the
\npart of the judge, for the guilty to escape and the innocent to suffer. It is
\nperhaps one of the necessary risks of joining in Nationalist movements to be
\nliable to be confounded in one fate with secret conspirators who happen to be
\nassociates in social or legi<\/font><\/span>–<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 288<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ntimate political relations, and when the <\/b> C.I.D. throws its nets with a generous wideness, we ought not to whine if such accidents
\nbring us into the meshes. The State must be preserved at any cost. In any case,
\nthe whole country must be grateful to Sir Lawrence Jenkins
\nfor the courtesy, patience and fairness with which he has heard the case and
\ngiven every facility to the defence, an attitude which might with advantage be
\ncopied by certain civilian judges in and outside the High Court and even by
\ncertain Judges, not civilians, in other provinces.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 289<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\n\tHOME<\/font><\/span><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alipur Judgment   THE judgment of the Appeal Court in the Alipur Case has resulted in the reduction of sentences to a greater or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-karmayogin-volume-02","wpcat-23-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}