DHANJI VIRJEE DETENU Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution and section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code to challenge an order of detention passed against the petitioner on October 7, 1965, by the Commissioner of Police, Greater Bombay, under rule (sic) of India Rules, 1962.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioner, he is a petty grocer doing business in that line for over 25 years, the daily turnover in his shop is not more than Rs. 25, the total value of the goods lying in his shop at a time is not more than Rs, 400, and his monthly income is about Rs, 100. The petitioner has further alleged that his shop and residence are adjacent to each other, that he has not engaged any servant, and that his wife attends to his business when he retires for rest in the afternoon. That the shop of the petitioner is a small one, and that it deals in retail foodgrains has been admitted in the affidavit filed in reply by the Commissioner of Police. The Commissioner of Police, however, states that he has no knowledge about the daily turnover or the total value of the goods lying in the petitioner's shop.

(3.) IT is common ground that the petitioner was arrested on that day after the raid and was let off by the police on bail of Rs. 500. As required by the police he presented himself the next day before a Presidency Magistrate, when the police filed a remand application which showed that the petitioner was charged under clause 3 of the Imported Foodgrains (Prohibition of Unauthorised Sale) Order, 1958, read with section 25 of the Defence of India Act. At the request of the police the period of bail granted to the petitioner was extended to December 1, 1965. In the meantime, however, the petitioner was served on October 7, 1965, with the impugned order of detention and was (sic) to the Yerawada Prison at Poona. It was stated in the as necessary to detain the petitioner with a view to (sic)ig in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of the community.