HARNEK SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN these Criminal Writ Petitions Nos. 208, 220 and 225 of 1984. the action of the State of Punjab has been challenged, placing seven detenus, respectively named therein, at Fetehgarh Central Jail, District Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, a place outside Punjab. The grouse voiced herein is that when the detention orders had been passed in the State of Punjab and the detenus belonged to the State of Punjab, there was no occasion for the place of detention to be fixed outside the State of Punjab. A.K. Roy's case reported in AIR 1982 Supreme Court 710, is the spear-head for the argument.

(2.) THE detenus concerned with Cr.W.P. No. 208 of 1984 are Dalbir Singh. Satnam Singh, Mohinder Singh Jassal and Swaran Singh belonging to different villages in District Patiala. The detenus concerned with Cr-W.P. No. 220 of 1934 are Balwinder Singh and Jaswant Singh belonging to a village in District Kapurthala. The. detenu concerned with Cr W P No. 225 of 1984 is Toga Singh belonging to a village in District Bhatinda; all of which are in the State of Punjab. They were in the first instance confined in the Central/District Jails of their respective districts but were ordered to be transferred by the Governor of Punjab on 9.5 1984 under section 5 (b) of the National Security Act, 1980 to Fatehgarh Central Jail, Uttar Pradesh, vide Order No. 1558/SDSB/S-2 dated Chandigarh the 9th May, 1984. They are described at Serial Nos. 4 to 10 therein. A copy of the order has been placed on file as. Annexure 'R-2/I'.

(3.) IT was also stated by the Home Secretary that the detenus are active members of All India Sikh Students Federation which organisation has been banned by the Union of India under section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The Government had information that they and their other co-associates took part in the conventions held inside Gurdwara Dukh Niwarn Sahib (Patiala) on 13.10.1983 and 18.2.1984 under the presidentship of Shri Harvinder Singh Khalsa, Vice President of the All India Sikh Students Federation. An those meetings, the conventions resolved to kill Nirankaris, Hindus and police officers and to unback reign of terror in Punjab by indiscriminate killings to achieve the goal of Khalistan. The prejudicial activities of the detenus in inciting and encouraging communal violence against Hindus for the creation of khalistan were of such a nature so as to lead to communal riots and blood-shed in the State by killing Nirankaris, Hindus and police officers. And thus in the interest of law and order, security of State, Public safety and public interest, it was not desirable to keep the detenus in jail in the State of Punjab in view of the peculiar nature of the activities of the detenus and the following they commanded under the binned All India Sikh Students Federation. Further it was claimed by the Home Secretary that if the detenus were detained in jail in Punjab, they were likely to incite communal violence through their visitors to jail, and their supporters were likely to attempt their release from jail by any mean thereby frustrating the very object of detention.