TALIB HUSSAIN Vs. STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Talib Hussain @ Abdul Rehman son of Feroz Din forwarded through Central Jail, Jammu his application for a writ of habeas corpus. According to the averments made therein the petitioner was arrested on September 4, 1968 but the warrant for his detention was dated September 10, 1968. upto December 12, 1969, he was neither shown the warrant of detention nor were the grounds of his detention communicated to him He was served with a copy of the warrant of detention on December 12, 1969. The petitioner had by then already filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus (W. P. No. 400 of 1969) but that application was withdrawn by him. On December 5, 1968 the petitioner was transferred from interrogation centre to the Central Jail, Jammu. On December 10, 1968 he was told that the grounds of detention could not be disclosed to him and this was long after the expiry of ten days from his arrest. The petitioner was tortured at the interrogation centre, Jammu, and his signatures were forcibly obtained on a piece of blank paper. The petitioner claimed to be a permanent resident of village Azamabad, police station Thana Darhal, Tahsil and District Rajouri. His arrest was alleged to be mainly due to personal grudges of Fazal Hasan and Nazir Hasan.

(2.) According to the return the petitioner was detained on September 11, 1968 pursuant to the order dated September 10, 1968. The petitioner was informed that it was against public interest to disclose to him the grounds on which the order of his detention had been made. The Government approved the order of detention on September 30, l968. The order of detention was read out to the petitioner and its contents explained to him in Urdu and the petitioner at the time of detention affixed his signature on the order as a token of having understood the same. The order under Section 8 read with Section 13-A of the J and K Preventive Detention Act to the effect that it was against public interest to disclose to the petitioner the grounds of detention was made on September 10, 1968 and not on December 10, 1968 as suggested by the Petitioner. The date December 10, 1968 on the copy attached to the reply of the Government was due to a typing error.

(3.) On behalf of the petitioner it was argued that the petitioner's detention started prior to the order of detention and that his detention must on that account be held to be illegal from its inception and therefore wholly void justifying his release. It was further submitted that there was no material showing that the orders made against the petitioner were explained to him in his own language.