BALCHAND CHORARIA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition for a writ of habeas Corpus praying that the petitioner who has been ordered to be detained under Section 3(1) of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter to be called COFEPOSA) and is at present lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi should be set at liberty.

(2.) Earlier the petitioner had been arrested under Section 3(1) of COFEPOSA in pursuance of a detention order dated 19-12-1974 issued by the Government of Maharashtra. The said detention was challenged by the petitioner's wife by means of C.A. 320 of 1975 in the High Court of Bombay and the same was quashed by the judgment of 1-7-1975. On 30-7-1975 the Central Government passed an order stating that whereas with a view to prevent the petitioner from acting in any manner prejudicial to the augmentation of foreign exchange, it was necessary to make an order under Section 3 of COFEPOSA and it directed that the petitioner be detained and kept in custody in Central prison, Bombay. It appears that the petitioner after his release by the Bombay High Court had left the country and this order was consequently not served on him. According to the petitioner he came back to India in May, 1977. It is thus that the Central Government in exer cise of the powers conferred by Section 5 of COFEPOSA directed by its order of 12-5-1977 that the petitioner be detained under detention order F. No. 673/106/75 Cus VIII dated 30-7-1975 and be kept in custody in the Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi. On 16-5-1977 the petitioner was supplied the grounds on which the detention order dated 30-7-1975 under Section 3(1) of COFEPOSA had been made against him.

(3.) It would be proper at this stage to reproduce the grounds in extenso. The grounds are as follows :