JUDGMENT
1. We think it a pity that the gambling laws, through the injudicious activity of the police and want of discretion on the part of the Magistracy, should sometimes be worked so harshly as they have been in this case. Without going into a discussion of the points raised by the learned Counsel for the applicants it will be sufficient to say that every feature of the case convinces us that it was of the most trifling character and one which might have been passed over by the police with a caution, or if brought before the Magistrate, dealt with by him in a very different way from that in which he has dealt with these offenders. They are peons and mill-hands, and on a hot afternoon betook them selves to the cool shades of the Daskroi Masjid where; adopting the Magistrate’s finding of fact, they were amusing, themselves by playing cards for very insignificant stakes. The police raided the place and dragged nine of these persons before the Magistrate who convicted five of them and actually sentenced them to fifteen days’ imprisonment. Such a sentence in such circumstances appears to us to be monstrous and altogether out of proportion to the criminality of the acts charged. If the police had thought it worthwhile to bring such persons before a Magistrate on such charges, we should have thought that the Magistrate would have seen that this was no serious matter, and if he had felt it necessary upon the evidence to convict the accused parsons at all, he would have let them go with a small–fine. Unfortunately they appear to have undergone seven days’ imprisonment before they were released on bail by this High Court.
2. We, therefore, now remit the unexpired portion of the sentence. We do not interfere with the conviction, because in the circumstances there is no occasion for us to do so.