NACHHATAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner Nachhattar Singh was convicted for the murder of Lala Jagat Naryan and had undergone imprisonment in Central Jail Nabha and Sangrur for about 12 years when he was suddenly transferred to the Jodhpur Jail (Rajasthan) vide order dated 25.9.1992. This action of the authority has been challenged in this writ of Habeas Corpus. The case of the petitioner is that no reason had been disclosed by the authorities as to why it had been thought necessary by the authorities for transferring him from his own State to another one.

(2.) IN the reply, the stand of the respondents is that the petitioner was a man of desperate character as evidenced by the fact that he had not been found eligible for premature release during the period of sentence and that Criminal Miscellaneous Application No. 9198-M of 1993 filed by him seeking this relief from this Court had already been dismissed.

(3.) IN A.K. Roy's case (supra) which arose out of a detention under the National Security Act, the Supreme Court observed that the normal rule had to be that a detenu would be kept in detention in a place which was within the environs of his or her ordinary place of resident as keeping a person in detention in a place other than this would make it impossible for his friends and relatives to meet him or for the detenu to claim the advantage of facilities like having his own food. It was also observed that the requirements of administrative convenience, safety and security could justify in a given case the transfer of a detenu to a place other than that where he ordinarily resided, but that could only be by way of an exception and not as a matter of a general rule. It was also observed that even when a detenu was required to be kept in or transferred to a place other than his usual place of residence, he should not be sent to a far off place.