Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
(1) If it appears to the- State Government that the inhabitants of any area are concerned in or abetting the commission of acts prejudicially affecting the maintenance of public order (which expression "public order" shall, without prejudice to the generality of its meaning, include public safety and communal harmony) or are harbouring persons concerned in the commission of such acts, or are failing to render all the assistance in their power to discover or apprehend such persons, or are suppressing material evidence of the commission of such acts, the State Govern- ment may, by notification in the Official Gazette, impose a collective fine on the inhabitants of that area. (2) The State Government or any officer empowered in this behalf by the State Government may, by genera] or special order, exempt any person or class or section of such inhabitants from liability to pay the whole or any part of the fine apportioned to them. (3) The Commissioner of Police in Calcutta and the Dis- trict Magistrate elsewhere after such enquiry as he may deem necessary by himself or some other officer deputed for the purpose, shall apportion such fine amongst the inhabit- ants who are liable collectively to pay it and such apportion- ment shall be made according to the judgment of the Commissioner of Police, Calcutta, or the District Magistrate, as the case may be, of the respective means of such inhabitants. (4) The portion of such fine payable by any person may -be recovered— Imposi- tion of collective fine on in- habitants of area. Act V of (a) in the manner provided by the Code of Criminal