B RAMACHANDRA RAO Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions (W. P. No. 601 of 1970 and T. P. No. 12 of 1971) forwarded to this Court by post through jail authorities by the same petitioner have been placed before us for hearing together because in the concluding prayer in the Transfer Petition which is dated April 12, 1971, after pointing out that the petitioner had already filed a habeas corpus petition (W. P. No. 601 of 1970) it was stated that the Transfer Petition was being filed to save time so that in case the petitioner failed to secure satisfactory relief in the habeas corpus petition the prayer for the transfer of the cases mentioned in the Transfer Petition may be appropriately pressed. The Transfer Petition is before us at the stage of preliminary hearing whereas the petition for habeas corpus has reached the stage of regular hearing after notice.

(2.) The petitioner describing himself as Col. Dr. B. Ramachandra Rao of I. N. A. (Indian National Army) who is confined in sub-jail at Bhubaneshwar in Orissa State has averred in the habeas corpus petition that he was brought from the District Jail, Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh State to Bhubaneshwar in Orissa State on October 11, 1969, without any legal authority and was not produced before any magistrate till January 3, 1970 when he had already moved the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus on November 25, 1969. The said petition was registered in this Court as W. P. 16 of 1970. In that case, according to the petitioner, the State had represented to this Court that the petitioner, had been produced before a magistrate on October 4,1969. This, according to him was not correct. As the petitioner was unrepresented in this Court various misrepresentations made on behalf of the State of Orissa induced this Court to dismiss that petition. The petitioner has also made some reckless allegations against the magistrates and the Jail Superintendent concerned and added that on the petitioner's search all the documents in his possession were taken away from him, by the jailor and handed over to Shri D. Kanungo, Magistrate, I Class. He has attached with his petition a large number of annexures in his attempt to show what he considers to be a deep conspiracy against him engineered by various officers of the State of Orissa. In the annexures we find reference to various public men and Government officers to which we consider it unnecessary to advert in detail for the purpose of these cases. Suffice it to say that in the writ petition the relevant grievances appear to be that the petitioner was not produced before any magistrate on October 4, 1969 and that the warrant bearing that date and other documents in support of his alleged production are all fabricated documents and that Shri D. Kanungo, Magistrate, I Class had on October 7, 1969 directed the Superintendent, Sub-Jail, Bhubaneshwar not to allow facilities to the petitioner to approach any court and that manifestly till that date no warrant committing the petitioner to jail custody had been issued by the said Magistrate. Indeed, the Petitioner's confinement in the sub-jail was directed by the Magistrate to be kept as highly, confidential.

(3.) As the prayer for his personal production in this Court was refused and he did not engage a counsel Shri N. S. Das Behl, an advocate of this Court, very kindly agreed to assist the Court as amicus curiae. The counter-affidavits filed on behalf of the State were duly sent to the petitioner for reply and he forwarded to this Court by post lengthy further affidavits in reply to the counter-affidavits making serious and reckless allegations of some conspiracy to harm him, against various officers, including the then Union Home Minister. It may be pointed out that as rule nisi was issued in this case after giving a show cause notice to the respondents we have before us more than one affidavit sworn by both sides.