124 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Regulations respecting Brahmins sitting dhurna
XI. First. — In conformity to the order of the Governor General in Council, of the 2nd of November 1792, and the publication issued in consequence at Benares on the 22nd of December of the same year and the further order of the Governor General in Council under date the 7th November 1794, the following rules are enacted for the preventing of dhurna ; and for the trial and punishment of Brahmins committing this offence.
Magistrate to cause Brahmins sitting dhurna to be apprehended
Second. —On a complaint in writing being presented to the Magistrate against any Brahmin or Brahmins for sitting dhurna, the Magistrate, upon oath being made to the truth of the information, shall issue a warrant under his seal and signature for the apprehension of the person or persons thus complained against, on the prisoner or prisoners being brought before the migistrate, he shall enquire into the circumstances of the charge, and examine the prisoner or prisoners and complainant, and also such other persons (whose depositions are to be taken on oath) as are stated to have any knowledge of the misdemeanor alleged against him or them, and commit their respective depositions to writing ; and after this enquiry, if it shall appear to the magistrate that the misdemeanor charged against the prisoner or prisoners was never committed, or, that there is no ground to suspect him or them to have been concerned in the committing of it, the magistrate shall cause such Brahmin or Brahmins to be forthwith discharged, recording his reasons for the information of the Court of Circuit, in the manner specified in Section 17, Regulation IX,
- On the contrary, if it shall appear to the magistrate that the crime or misdemeanor was actually committed, and that there are grounds for suspecting the prisoner or prisoners to have been concerned therein as principals or accomplices, the magistrate shall cause him or them to be committed to prison or held to bail, (according as in his discretion he shall judge proper) to take his or their trial at the next session of the Court of Circuit, and shall bind over the complainant to appear and carry on the prosecution, and the witnesses to attend and give their evidence, in the manner required by Section 5, Regulation IX, 1793. The Trial shall lake place before the court of circuit, in the manner prescribed in the said regulation, and in Regulation XVI, 1795 ;. and after the evidence is closed, it shall be referred to the pundit of the court, to deliver in writing the vyuvustha, or exposition of the shaster, as to whether the facts contained in the evidence of amount to proof of the prisoner or prisoners having committed dhurna, and in the event of such vyuvustha being in the affirmative, the Court of Circuit is to sentence the prisoner or prisoners to be expelled from the province of Benares, and to forfeit all title to the right or claim for the realizing of which the misdemeanor shall have been committed; but this sentence is not to be carried into execution until it shall have been reported by the