MOHD RIZWAN MOHD ISAQ Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule in criminal Writ Petition No. 2363 of 2005 and criminal Appeal No. 789 of 2005 is admitted. The respondents waive service. By consent of the parties, taken up for hearing forthwith.

(2.) Criminal Writ Petition No. 2363 of 2005 and Criminal Appeal No. 789 of 2005 involve common questions of law and facts and, therefore, they can be disposed of by a common judgment.

(3.) The petitioner in Criminal Writ petition No. 2363 of 2005 is original accused 5 and the appellant in Criminal Appeal No. 789 of 2005 is original accused 4 in POTA Special case No. 1 of 2004 which is being tried by the special Court constituted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (for short, "the POTA 2002"). for convenience, it would be better to refer to the petitioner in the writ petition and the appellant in the appeal as per their status in the special case. The accused are being tried along with other accused for offences under sections 3, 4, 5 and 20 of the POTA 2002 and also under the Explosive Substances Act, Arms act, Damage to Public Property Act and the indian Penal Code (for short, "the IPC"). According to the accused, during the pendency of this case, the Centra! Pota Review committee (for convenience, "the said committee") directed them to represent their case before it in person or through their advocate. The accused represented themselves before the said Committee through their advocate. On 14/6/2005, the said Committee communicated its order to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Maharashtra and to the accused. It is stated in this order that after examining the available material on record and after hearing the counsel for the parties, the said Committee had passed order dated 10/5/ 2005 wherein it has directed the State of maharashtra to proceed in accordance with clause (a) of sub-section 3 of section 2 of the prevention of Terrorism (Repeal) Act, 2004 (for short, "the Repeal Act") in respect of accused 4 and 5. A copy of the order was also annexed to the said order.