ASHOK SHRIDHAR JOSHI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 29th May, 1982, the respondent No. 2 with a view to preventing the petitioner-detenu from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order made an order under section 3(2) of the National Security Act, 1980 (hereinafter referred to "the Act") directing that the petitioner be detained under the said Act. This detention order was served on the petitioner, along with the grounds of detention and copies of documents relied upon and referred to in the grounds of detention, along with the Marathi translation thereof on the same day. It is not disputed, that on 29th of May, 1982 when the petitioner-detenu was served with the detention order, grounds of detention and the concerned documents, the petitioner was already in police custody, having been arrested on 6th April, 1982 in connection with an offence of murder registered as C.R. No. 141 of 1982 of Bhandup Police Station. However, the petitioner was ordered to be released on bail on 1st July, 1982. The order of detention dated 29th May, 1982 is challenged in this writ petition.

(2.) The petitioner is a resident of Ashok Nagar, Kanjur village, Bhandup (East), Bombay. The grounds of detention are five in number :---

(3.) Shri Pradhan for the petitioner has contended that the impugned detention order does not indicate awareness on the part of the Detaining Authority of the fact that the petitioner was on the date of the passing of the detention order was already in custody nor does the detention order or the grounds of detention disclose any compelling reasons for which the Detaining Authority considered it necessary to pass the preventive-detention order against the petitioner in spite of the fact that he was already in custody of the police. In this respect Shri Pradhan pointed out that the grounds of detention contained an endorsement at the bottom addressing the communication containing the grounds to the petitioners address recorded there as "Snehabandh Co-operative Housing Society, Ashok Nagar, Kanjur village, Bhandup (East), Bombay", although admittedly on 29th May, 1982 the petitioner was already arrested and in police custody. According to Shri Pradhan this itself was indicative of non-application of mind on the part of the Detaining Authority and vitiated the order of detention. In this respect Shri Pradhan has placed reliance on the observations of the Supreme Court in (Vijay Kumar v. State of Jammu and Kashmir and others) A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 1023.