HAJARA Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Original Petition is filed for a direction to the respondents to produce the corpus of the petitioner's husband Sri. Abdul Razak Kodoor, who has been detained in Central Prison, Trivandrum, under S.3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (hereinafter called as 'the COFEPOSA Act') and set him at liberty by issuing a writ of habeas corpus or any other appropriate writ. Husband of the petitioner (hereinafter called as 'the detenu') was employed in Saudi Arabia. On 2.2.1996, he came to Kerala from Riyadh and on reaching the Airport at Calicut, Customs Officers detained him and on search of his body 69 gold biscuits weighing 8043.33 gms were seized. The gold biscuits were concealed inside some electrical appliances brought by him. Prosecution steps were taken under the Customs Act. He was arrested and produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) Court, Ernakulam on 3.2.1996 and was remanded to judicial custody till 16.2.1996. An application for bail was moved before the learned Magistrate, which was opposed by the Superintendent (Intelligence), Air Customs, Calicut Airport. The learned Magistrate rejected the bail application by his order dated 15.2.1996. Thereafter, another application for bail was moved on behalf of the detenu before the Court of the Sessions Judge, Ernakulam, which was rejected. Subsequently, a second application was moved before the Sessions Court, Ernakulam. The learned Sessions Judge, as per order dated 26.3.1996 ordered release of the detenu overruling the objections of the Superintendent, Air Customs (Intelligence), Karipur Airport, Calicut The bail was granted with the following conditions:

(2.) On 1.4.1996 a detention order was issued by the first respondent, under S.3(1)(i) of the COFEPOSA Act. The detenu was issued grounds of detention and he was apprehended and detained in the Central Prison, Trivandrum on 5.4.1996. The grounds of detention are produced as Ext. P1 in the case. The detenu filed Ext. P5 representation wherein the detenu has clearly stated that he was granted bail by the Sessions Court, Ernakulam in Crl. MP No. 490/96. He has further stated that the bail application and the orders were not placed before the detaining authority. The representation was rejected by the first respondent by Ext. P6 dated 23.5.1996 and by the Central Government by Ext. P7 dated 7.6.1996. The detention order was confirmed by the first respondent by Ext. P8 dated 18.6.1996 and the detenu was ordered to be detained for a period of one year from 5.4.1996.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner urged two grounds. (1) The bail application and the bail order were not placed before the detaining authority and the detaining authority had no opportunity to consider the same. (2) The grounds of detention were in English and they were not translated into Malayalam and hence, the detenu has not given a proper explanation.