BASANTI LAL Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ or direction in the nature of Habeas Corpus to obtain the release of detenu Sajjanlal who is the brother-in-law of the petitioner.

(2.) IN exercise of the powers conferred under Section 3 (1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA hereafter) and order (Annexure-A) was passed by respondent No. 1 on 15th June 1982 for detention of Sajjanlal. This order along with grounds of detention was served on the detenu on 19th June 1982. The grounds were as under : (

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner Shri Chafekar mainly canvassed two points to challenge the validity of the order of detention. One was that the acts of the detenu committed in 1973, being stale, could not be pressed into service for arriving at the subjective satisfaction that an order under COFEPOSA was necessary to prevent him from such activities. Second ground was that as there was only one infraction of the provisions of the Customs Act, the detenue could be prosecuted therefor and preventive action under COFEPOSA was unnecessary and unwarranted.