USHARANITIWARI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, the petitioner seeks writ of habeas corpus for release of her husband. Mr. Nand Kishore Tiwari, who has been detained under the provisions of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988 (for short, 'the Act').

(2.) Mr. Tiwari, the detenu, was detained on March 27, 1996 is pursuance to an order dated January 30, 1996 made by the Governor of Bihar in exercise of his powers conferred by subsection (1) of Section 3 of the Act on his satisfaction that it was necessary to detain Mr. Tiwari with a view in preventing him from keeping and smuggling of contraband narcotic drugs. In pursuance to sub- section (3) of Section 3 of the Act and for the purpose of clause (5) of Article 22 of the Constitution, the detenu was communicated the grounds on which the order of detention had been made within the time prescribed. Under Section 12 of the Act the order of detention could be revoked by the State Government and even by the Central Government.

(3.) It is not necessary for the purpose of decision of this writ application to give the facts in detail except to note that on the basis of specific intelligence the officers of Narcotics Cell of Central Excise intercepted two CRPF trucks at a place near Didarganj in the State of Bihar and recovered 3200 Kgs. Ganja therefrom. This action was taken on August 11, 1995. All the personnels who were escorting CRPF trucks and one civilian donning CRPF uniform along with arms and ammunitions were arrested. Investigation of the case led to the arrest of the detenu who was at the relevant time I.G.P. (Operation), Manipur, Nagaland and Imphal. The investigation showed a wide spread conspiracy to smuggle narcotics into the State of Bihar Anticipatory bail application of Mr. Tiwari was rejected by the Gauhati High Court by its order dated October 30, 1995. He was, however, released on bail by this Court by order dated December 4, 1995. Thereafter detention order was clamped on him and, as noted above, in execution thereof Mr. Tiwari was detained on March 27, 1996. His writ-application seeking quashing of his order of detention at a pre-detention stage, Cr. W.J.C. 98 of 1996, was dismissed by a Bench of this Court on February 23, 1996. Mr. Tiwari along with others is one of the accused in the criminal case launched with respect to the recovery of the aforesaid narcotics from two CRPF trucks.