RASHID HASAN ROOMI Vs. UNION OFINDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Section 491 of the Code of Criminal Procedure a challenge is raised to the validity of the petitioners' detention in the district jail, Fatehpur, in pursuance to an order purporting to be under Foreigners Internment Order, 1962, and it is prayed that he be set at liberty.

(2.) HAVING heard learned counsel for the parties at some length, we directed yesterday that the petitioner be set at liberty forthwith. We now propose to give our reasons for the order.

(3.) ACCORDING to the petitioner his permanent home is at Jahanabad where he owns considerable cultivable land and practises as a registered Homoeopathic Doctor. The petitioner has filed certified copies of the extracts from the final Assembly electoral rolls for 1957 and 1962 for Kara Jahanabad Town Area which indicate that he is entered as a voter at serial Nos. 667 and 36 respectively of the aforesaid electoral rolls. The petitioner's allegation that he contested the election of the Town Area for the office of Chairman in 1958 has not been denied. His further allegation that he contested for the aforesaid office again in the year 1964 and was elected as the Chairman of the Town Area Committee and has been continuing in that office too has not been denied in the counter affidavit. The petitioner has annexed certified copies of the result sheets of the aforesaid two elections which indicate that in the election which was held in 1957 the votes polled by him were 1011 as against 1131 of the successful candidate while in the election which was held in 1964 he polled the highest number of votes and was declared elected as Chairman of the Town Area Committee. It is admitted that he at the time of his arrest also was occupying the office of the Chairman of the Town Area Committee of Kara Tahanabad. The petitioner has also obtained an India-Pakistan passport before 1961. It appears however that his application for obtaining another India-Pakistan passport in 1961 has not been granted by the State Government as is evident from annexure I to the counter affidavit.