BHAWANI SHANKAR CHACHAN Vs. ASSISTANT COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BHAWANI Shankar Chachan has, in this application under Article 226 of the Constitution oi India, challenged the detention of his brother Dungarmall Chachan, who was detained pursuant to an Order No. F. 673J 25/78 -Cus. VIII dated Jan. 12, 1979 passed by Shri B. B. Gujral, Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter the Act) and has prayed for a writ in the nature of Habeas Corpus.

(2.) THE aforesaid order was passed with a view to prevent the detenu from smuggling goods, abetting the smuggling of goods and engaging in transporting, cancelling and keeping smuggled goods.

(3.) MR . Balai Chandra Ray, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner, has challenged the order of detention on several grounds. His first contention is that the detaining authority admittedly passed the order of detention for three reasons, namely to prevent the detenu from (a) smuggling goods, (b) abetting the smuggling of goods and (c) engaging in transporting, concealing and keeping smuggled goods; but the grounds are so confusing that it is impossible to correlate any particular ground to a particular reason for which the order of detention was passed and as such, the detenu was not in a position to make an effective representation against the order of detention.