DHANESH SHANTILAL SHAH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner, the father of the detenu Chirag D Shah has preferred this Writ Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for a writ of Habeas Corpus and for setting aside the impugned detention order bearing No.PSA -1214/CR -47(2)/SPL -3(A) dated 16th September, 2014 issued by the Respondent No.2. By the said order dated 16th September, 2014 the Petitioner was ordered to be preventively detained by the Respondent No.2 in exercise of powers under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (for brevity "the COFEPOSA Act").

(2.) HEARD the learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner and the learned APP appearing for the Respondents. We have also perused the record produced by the learned APP minutely.

(3.) THE learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner submitted that the representation preferred by the detenu in support of challenge to the said preventive detention order has been decided by the Detaining Authority/ State Government with inexplicable delay and hence, the said order stands vitiated in view of the constitutional mandate embodied under Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India. The learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner submitted that she has taken a specific ground in paragraph No.4(xi) of the Petition to that effect and has invited our attention to the same. She submitted that the Petitioner made a composite representation on 16th October, 2014 through the Superintendent, Nashik Road Central Prison to the Detaining Authority and others and the same came to be decided and communicated to the detenu at Nashik Road Central Prison at Nashik on 13th November, 2014. She urged before us that the Detaining Authority as well as the Sponsoring Authority have utterly failed to explain the delay in deciding the representation expeditiously which has caused the continuation of the order of preventive detention to vitiate. In support of her contention, the learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner has relied upon a judgment of the Division Bench of this Court, to which one of us (Shri A.S. Oka, J.) is a member, dated 2nd May, 2014, passed in Criminal Writ Petition No.643 of 2014 in the case of Riyaz Ahmed Batatawala v. The State of Maharashtra and others.