TULSHI RABIDAS Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The case of the petitioner, a detenu in West Bengal, has been presented at persistent length by Shri Marwah, appearing as amicus curiae, but some of the many contentions pressed by him merit serious notice which alone we propose to deal with.

(2.) Now, the facts to the extent relevant. The order for detention was made by the District Magistrate, West Dinajpur, on March 19, 1973 pursuant to which he was taken into custody nine days later. The calendar of 'statutory' events discloses no infirmity but the content of the grounds given by the District Magistrate and the order of approval made by the State Government have been the focal points of attack. Straightway we proceed to set out the two criminal involvements of the petitioner which allegedly prejudicial the authority to direct detention with a view, hereafter, to inhibit his activities prejudicial to supplies essential to the community. They are:

(3.) The past is the precursor and predictor of the future and this commonsense canon is usually - and in this case applied by the authority to foretell the danger to the services and supplies essential to the community by repetitive criminal activity of the prospective detenu. Once the officer entrusted with the power reads the omens with due care, the court cannot re-read for its own satisfaction.. But if the authority puts forward grounds so grotesque that he goofs the law, as it were, the Court will invalidate the order for the well-worn reason that no rational being would have formed the satisfaction which is a sine qua non for the detention. Supra-rational hunch or infra-rational instinct are not legal processes in this humdrum world and we have, as sentinels, the duty to scan the basis of the subjective satisfaction of the authority to check upon this minimal aspect of rational belief.