GOUR CHANDRA DEY Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner was detained by the District Magistrate Howrah, under Section 3 (1) read with sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971. The order of detention was passed by the District Magistrate on October 23, 1973, and was approved by the State Government, on October 28, 1973. The other legal formalities required by the Act have been duly observed and no grievance on that score has been made before us. The petitioner was however, arrested on November 24, 1973 and the sheet-anchor of the argument by the counsel for the petitioner has been that the inordinate delay in the arrest of the petitioner even after the order of detention was passed on him has not been satisfactorily explained by the respondent. It has not been and could not be argued before us that the grounds are vague or ambiguous because the grounds appear to be absolutely clear and specific. The grounds are as follows:

(2.) A perusal of the grounds would manifestly reveal that overt acts have been attributed against the petitioner which are directly connected with the disturbance of the public order. It has been clearly mentioned in the grounds that the petitioner along with his associates being armed with bombs entered into the shop and hurled bomb towards the local people and tried even to prevent them from protecting their lives Ground No. 2 also shows that the petitioner is alleged to have forcibly extorted money at the point of knife as a result of which various shop keepers ran helter-skelter. The petitioner further wrongfully restrained one of the shop keepers. In these circumstances we are satisfied that the grounds mentioned in the order of detention are clear and specific and do not suffer from any legal infirmity.

(3.) Coming now to the main argument advanced before us, namely, that the delay in the arrest of the petitioner has not been satisfactorily explained, our attention has been drawn by the counsel for the State to paragraph 17 of the affidavit filed by the District Magistrate, Howrah, which runs thus: