MADRAS: An application for the issue of a writ of Habeas Corpus filed on behalf of Mr. S. V. Ghate, a Communist leader of Bombay now a detenue in Rajahmundry Jail, was dismissed by Their Lordships the Chief Justice and Mr. Justice McCnett in the Madras High Court today [March 24].

Their Lordships held that the court had no power to entertain such an application according to Detention Ordinance 3 of 1944.

It was contended on behalf of Mr. Ghate that he was a prominent member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. On March 1939, he was served with an order directing him to leave Madras city and reside in Mangalore municipal limits. He complied with that order but in March 1944, he was arrested and detained since then for reasons unknown to him. He had prayed several times in vain to the Government to either prosecute him or release him and he now contended that his detention was illegal.

[Meanwhile;] the Civil Disobedience detenus confined in the Punjab jails have been allowed the concession of playing out-door games. (Dawn, Delhi)

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