MURUGAN Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment shall dispose of the abovementioned seven writ petitions. In all these writ-petitions, the detention orders passed against M/s.Murugan (petitioner in HCP No.1580 of 2003), Krishnasamy Thevar (petitioner in HCP No.1581 of 2003), Gengari (Petitioner in HCP No.1582 of 2003), Karuppasamy (petitioner in HCP No.1583 of 2003), Mariappan (petitioner in HCP No.1584 of 2003), Erulappan (petitioner in HCP No.1585 of 2003) and Mariselvam (petitioner in HCP No.1596 of 2003) are challenged. All these detention orders were passed by the District Collector and District Magistrate, Thoothukudi District, Thoothukudi, on 18-6-2003, branding the concerned detenus as goondas and directing their detention under Sec.3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Boot Leggers, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum Grabbers Act, 1982 (in short Act 14 of 1982.

(2.) AT the outset, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners very fairly pointed out that all the seven detenus belonged to one and the same family they are very closely related to each other and all the adverse cases and the ground case against them are identical. In short, it is on the basis of the common adverse cases and the common ground case that all the seven detenus came to be detained by the detaining authority under seven separate detention orders.

(3.) SIMILAR would be the position in respect of the contention which has been raised on the basis of Sec.3(3) of Act 14 of 1982. When we closely look at the language of the section, it would be apparent that it is only the material which is relevant in the opinion of the detaining authority which has to be forwarded to the State Government. Once the detaining authority had already dubbed the said representation as baseless, there was no question of forwarding the same to the Government again. The contention of the learned counsel that there has been a breach of procedure in not forwarding that representation to the Government is, therefore, obviously incorrect.