PYARE LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 491, Criminal P. C., by two brothers, viz. Pyare Lal and Anr. vs. State (30.03.1951 -ALLHC) Page 2 of 6 yare Lal and Anr. vs. State (30.03.1951 -ALLHC) Page 2 of 6 Pyare Lal and Radhe Lal who are at present undergoing detention under the Preventive Detention Act IV [4] of 1960.

(2.) The applicants are residents of Afzalgarh in district Bijnor. They own property at Afzalgarh and carry on business at Dhampur. They have been prominent members of the local Congress Committees bat have, of late, fallen out with their old colleagues. Their contention is that they are victims of the machinations of their erstwhile companions. On 7.12.1950 the District Magistrate of Bijnor passed two separate orders detaining each one of the two applicants under Section 3 (1) (a) (iii), Preventive Detention Act. The applicants were taken in custody at Lucknow on 26-1.1950. On 29.12.1960 the State Government passed two separate orders revoking the District Magistrate's orders dated 7-12-1960 and itself directing the detention of each of the two applicants with a view to prevent them "from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community". These orders also were passed under Section 3 (i) (a) (iii) of the Act.

(3.) The learned counsel for the applicants has pointed out in the first instance that no period of detention is specified in either of the two orders passed by the State Government. This circumstance, however, is immaterial. The law does not require the detaining authority to specify the period of detention. There is nothing in the Act to indicate that omission to specify the period of detention vitiates the detention order.