A ABDUL MAJEETH Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition for the issue of a writ of habeas corpus for the release of an individual going by the name of Palani Baba. He was detained on 9-8-1982 by an order of the District Magistrate of Periyar District. This order was later approved by the State Government. The detention was purported to be made under Section 3(2) of the National Security Act, 1980. The test of the order said that the detaining authority was satisfied that it was necessary to detain Palani Baba to prevent him from acting in a manner prejudicial to public order.

(2.) Two documents were relied on by the detaining authority as materials for formulating its grounds of detention. One was the verbatim transcript by an official stenographer of a speech in Tamil made by the detenu at Erode on 3-8-1982. The other was an affidavit sworn to by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Erode, who was a member of the police force in attendance at the meeting.

(3.) The grounds of detention were two in number. One was that the detenu by his speech had created enmity and hatred between different communities and had also incited violence between those communities, thereby affecting the maintenance of public order. The second ground of detention referred to other portions of the same speech to record the finding that the detenu had incited the audience to violence against the person of the State Chief Minister and this led to stone-throwing in the public meeting. According to the detaining authority, the provocative speech followed by the stone-throwing incident had created panic and terror among the people and thereby disrupted public order. The detaining authority wound up the grounds by saying that if the detenu were allowed to remain free he would go on indulging in further activities of this kind.