CHITTRANJAN MITRA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has challenged thedetention order passed against him on 26th of June 1987 byShri S. K. Kohli, Joint Secretary to the Government of India,under section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchangeand Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (as amended).This order was passed with a view to provening the petitionerfrom engaging in smuggling and transporting smuggled goods.This followed an incident dated 11/05/1987 when thepetitioner who is a citizen of Bangia Desh was apprehended inthe process of smuggling 8 gold biscuits of foreign made intothis country.

(2.) The main ground of challenge to the order of detention is delay in the consideration of representations made by thspetitioner-detenu to the detaining authority as also to the CentralGovernment. Mr. Arora submits that on 25th of September1987 he made these representations which were supposed tohave been decided on 21/10/1987 but the order ofrejection was recorded on 26th of October 1987 and it wascommunicated to him on 5/11/1987.

(3.) The affidavit submitted by Shri S. K. Chowdhry, UnderSecretary in the Ministry of Finance states that the-representation was received on 26th of September 1987 and the commentsfrom the sponsoring authority were sought on the same day.It further says that these comments were forwarded by shesponsoring authority on 15th of October 1987 and were receivedin the Ministry concerned on 20/10/1987 and therepresentations were considered on 21/10/1987. thoughthe memorandum was drawn on 26/10/1987 as 24th and25th October were holidays. In short, after tendering thisexplanation the court is told that there has been no undue delay in consideration of the representation. Another affidavithas been filed by Mr. C.D. Bhattacharjee. a Superintendentin the Collectorate of Customs (Preventive). West Bengal,Calcutta giving details as to how after the representation wasreceived for comment it was dealt with at their ends. Headmits that it was sent back to the Ministry on 15/10/1987.