BHIM SINGH Vs. LT GOVERNOR OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Petitioner was externed from Delhi for six months by order dated 20.8.2001 passed by DCP (NW). He took appeal against this before Lt.Governor which was dismissed by order dated 12.9.2001. He has now filed this petition challenging the two orders.

(2.) . Petitioner's case, in short, is that he was a person of substance, an income-tax payee and an agriculturist and that he was falsely implicated in nine cases out of which he had earned acquittal in seven and, therefore, there was no basis or justification for removing him from the limits of Delhi. His counsel Mr. Sandeep Sethi attacked the order on the ground that Commissioner had failed to reflect the opinion in it that no witness was willing to come forward to depose against the externee. Nor was there anything to show that witnesses were unwilling to come forward to depose against petitioner for fear of safety of their person or property. The camera witnesses examined had nowhere stated so but had only said that petitioner was a person of desperate character. He also pointed out that commissioner had failed to explore and weigh different options provided in Section 47 to deal with proposed externee and his order thus suffered from arbitrariness and non-application of mind. He cited Supreme Court judgments in Prem Chand Vs. Union of India AIR 1981 SC 613 and a judgment of this court in Swaran Lal Vs. State 20 (1981) DLT 252 and Mukhtiaruddin Vs. Lt. Governor of Delhi 52 (1987) DLT 238 to show that the order of externment would not sustain if it failed to satisfy the requirements of Section 47 of DPA.

(3.) . State counsel Ms. Mukta Gupta, however, justified the order on the ground that DCP had it passed on the basis of available material and inconformity with requirements of Section 47. Any acquittal earned by petitioner before or after his externment was of no consequence. She submitted that once camera witnesses had deposed that petitioner was a criminal of desperate nature, it was implied that they were not willing to come forward to depose against him.