PURSHOTTAM KUMAR Vs. M L WADHAWAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By virtue of a detention order dated 29/4/1986 passed by Shri M.L. Wadhawan, Additional Secretary to the Government of India under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (as amended) the petitioner was detained with a view to preventing the petitioner from acting in any manner prejudicial to the augmentation of foreign exchange. There is no need forms to give details of the events that led to the passing of the order of detention.

(2.) The petitioner has challenged his detention on a variety of grounds. In fact, in this petition the petitioner had made a grievance that the representations made by him were dealt with by the concerned authorities after a long time which itself vitiates the detention.

(3.) I have heard the counsel for the parties. Mr. Sunil Mehta learned counsel for the petitioner raised a peculiar and importatnt point <PG>163</PG> involved in this petition. The point is peculiar to this case in the sense that this is, perhaps, the first case in which such point is arising. In para No. 11 of the petition the petitioner had specifically said that a representation was made by him to the Central Government on 26/5/1986. In para No. 13 the petitioner pleaded that another representation was made by him to the detaining authority by him on 30/5/1986. This was followed by similar averments in grounds. The representation dated 26/5/1986 was meant for the consideration by the Central Government and the representation dated 30th May 1986 was meant for the detaining authority. This fact is not denied in the counter-affidavit filed by Shri S.K.Chaudhary, Under Secretary to the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. In fact in the counter-affidavit he has specifically stated in the 'Verification' column that the contents of this affidavit are based on the official records. For the purpose of this writ petition, therefore, I assume that the representation dated 26th May 1986 was meant for the Central Government and the representation dated 30th May 1986 was meant for the detaining authority.