PRAKASH ALIAS PAKYA MAHADEO RAUT AND ASHOK BABU JADHAV ALIAS ASHOK BHANGI Vs. SATISH SAHANEY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE THANE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions can be conveniently decided by a common judgment, as they pertain to the detention of two detenus practically on same and similar grounds.

(2.) Prakash is the petitioner in Criminal Writ Petition No. 382 of 1983 while in the other Criminal Writ Petition No. 383 of 1983 Ashok is the petitioner. For the sake of convenience, we would refer to both these petitioners by their names and not as petitioner in a particular petition. Prakash and Ashok are the residents of Thane. On 7th November, 1982, the Commissioner of Police, Thane, issued two separate orders, one against Prakash and other against Ashok, for their detention under the National Security Act. By these petitions, Prakash and Ashok have challenged those detention orders. Though, in the petition, there are a number of grounds, the only challenge that is urged before us is that grounds Nos. 1, 2 and 4 are relevant for the purpose of taking a subjective decision that conduct of Prakash and Ashok was prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. It would be convenient to refer to all the grounds that are alleged against Prakash and Ashok, and then appreciate the validity or otherwise of the contention raised by Mr. Chitnis. We would reproduce the grounds formulated while detaining Prakash. They read as follows :---

(3.) It is thus clear that an incident against an individual would not ordinarily be sufficient to come to a conclusion that incident creates a problem of public order. Ordinarily, it will be a matter of law and order. A detention order would not, therefore, be sustainable if it is based upon an individual act which has no tendency of creating a problem of public order. There cannot be any dispute about this position. Shri Chitnis relied upon a number of decisions of the Supreme Court, e.g., (Sudhir Kumar v. Police Commr. Calcutta) A.I.R. 1970 S.C. 814; (Jitendra Nath v. State of West Bengal) A.I.R. 1975 S.C. 1215; (Pushkar Mukherjee v. State of W.B.) (1969) Supreme Court Cases 10 and (Bimla Dewan v. Lieutenant Governor of Delhi) A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 1257. However, it is material to note that in each of these cases, the Supreme Court on facts came to the conclusion that the actions alleged against the detenu were only individual incidents and had no bearing on the question of public order. Shri Chitnis then urged that if one of the grounds in the detention order is bad, the entire detention order becomes void. For this purpose, he relied upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Jitendra Nath v. State of West Bengal, A.I.R. 1975 S.C. 1215, wherein it is held that the order stood vitiated if some of the grounds were found to have no nexus with the object of detention. Shri Kotwal for the respondents in Criminal Writ Petition No. 382 of 1983 did not challenge this legal position.