ABDUL MAHMOOD RANGREZ Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenging the impugned order bearing No.08/P.B.M./R.D.M./2022 dtd. 5/7/2022 passed by the respondent No.3/Collector-cum-District Magistrate, District Jabalpur.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that the respondents, on information that the petitioner and his son are illegally stocking essential commodities in their house, made a search on 6/6/2022. As per respondents, 116 bags of grains were stored in the house. It was intended to be transported elsewhere. Four bags were also found stored in a vehicle. The respondents visited the fair price shop belonging to the petitioner's son on 7/6/2022 and noted the discrepancy of the stocks. Thereafter the order of preventive detention was issued under Sec. 3(1) and (2) of the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980 (for short "the Act"), ordering detention for a period of six months in terms of the impugned order of detention dtd. 5/7/2022. Questioning the same, the instant petition is filed.

(3.) Shri Aditya Khandekar, learned counsel for the petitioner contends that there are virtually no allegations against the petitioner. That if at all the case of the respondents is to be accepted, the case can only be made out against his son and not him. That even otherwise an F.I.R. has been lodged against the petitioner and others in Crime No.270 of 2022 at Police Station Kotwali, Jabalpur for offences punishable under Ss. 406 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sec. 7(3) of the Essential Commodities Act. He was thereafter taken into custody. Subsequently, he moved an application seeking for bail in Miscellaneous Criminal Case No.32191 of 2022 wherein the Hon'ble High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur vide order dtd. 1/8/2022 granted bail to the petitioner. Hence, he pleads that none of these facts have been considered by the detaining authority. Hence, the order of detention is liable to be quashed. He further places reliance on a Division Bench judgment of this Court passed in Writ Petition No.12072 of 2022 dtd. 14/6/2022 in the case of Sanjay Kurmi (Patel) vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and others. He contends that the orders of detention were quashed therein primarily on the ground that since an F.I.R. has already been lodged, the question of ordering preventive detention would not arise for consideration.