SUBHASH POPATLAL DAVE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Special Leave Petitions and Writ Petitions are all directed against orders of preventive detention at the pre-execution stage. During the course of hearing, it was submitted on behalf of some of the Petitioners that the decision rendered in Addl. Secretary, Govt. of India vs. Alka Subhash Gadia, 1992 Supp1 SCC 496 that a preventive detention order could be challenged at the pre-execution stage on the five grounds enumerated in the judgment, was no longer good law on account of the subsequent enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005, hereinafter referred to as the "R. T. I. Act", which came into force on 15th June, 2005.

(2.) Since a decision on the points raised could effectively decide the matters without going into factual details, it was decided to decide the said questions as preliminary issues, before going into the matters on merit.

(3.) Appearing on behalf of some of the Petitioners, Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, learned Senior Advocate, urged that the five exceptions laid down in Alka Subhash Gadia's case were not exhaustive, but only illustrative, as was held by this Court in Deepak Bajaj vs. State of Maharashtra, 2008 16 SCC 14. Mr. Rohatgi submitted that it was well settled that the power of judicial review vested in the High Courts under Article 226 and in this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution, is part of the basic structure of the Constitution and it was inconceivable that such power of judicial review could be restricted by amending the Constitution or by a judicial pronouncement.