RAIMENT Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ petition has been filed by the brothers in-law of the detenu under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issuance of a Writ of Habeas Corpus by quashing the order of detention dated 22-10-1987 passed against the detenu by the second Respondent Collector and District Magistrate of Kanya-kumari District at Nagercoil, under Section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum Grabbers Act, 1982 (Tamil Nadu Act XIV of 1982) with a view to prevent the detenu, Dhas alias Dhasan alias Yesudasan, from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of the public order.

(2.) The main ground urged by Mr. S. Shanmugavelayutham the learned Counsel for the Petitioner is that the detenu who comes from Kanniyakumari District, is a person, whose mother-tongue is Malayalam; that he does not know to read and write either in Tamil or English, that the papers and the documents and the grounds of detention were furnished to him in Tamil and English and that the failure of furnishing copies of documents in Malayalam vitiates the order of detention passed against the detenu. In reply thereto, the second Respondent Collector and District Magistrate of Kanniyakumari District at Nagercoil has submitted thus in paragraph 6 of his counter affidavit:-

(3.) It has been repeatedly pointed out by the Courts in this country that the grounds of detention and the copies of documents referred to therein should be in the language which the detenu understands. As observed by the Supreme Court in Lallubhoi Josibhat v. Union of India, 1981 AIR(SC) 728, "Art 22(g)of the Constitution requires that the grounds of detention must be 'communicated' to the detenu, (Communicate is a strong word. It means that sufficient knowledge of the basic facts constituting the grounds should be imported effectively and fully to the detenu in writing in a language, which he understands. The whole purpose of 'communicating the grounds' to the detenu is to enable him to make a purposeful and effective representation.