SHEIKH NASSIR HUSSAIN ALIAS IMRAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sheikh Nassir Hussain alias Imran has filed this Petition questioning his Detention under Section 3 (1) of the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988, ordered vide Divisional Commissioner, Jammu's Order No. PITNDPS/01 of 2009 dated 23.11.2009.

(2.) According to the Divisional Commissioner, the detenu, a notorious and habitual smuggler of Charas, had developed a huge network and a large gang, which was involved in the smuggling of Charas from Kashmir to Gujrat, Ahmedabad, And to prevent him from continuously indulging in smuggling of Charas and spreading his network, it was necessary to detain him under the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988, although pursuant to his arrest in FIR No. 62/2008 registered at Police Station, Samba under Section 18 of the NDPS Act, he was in judicial lock up in District Jail, Jammu. The ground relied upon by the Divisional Commissioner to detain Sheikh Nassir Hussain in preventive custody, despite his being in judicial custody, is that there was every likelihood that he may manage to get bail and abscond thereafter.

(3.) Relying on Sayed Abdul Ala versus Union of India and others, reported as 2007 AIR SCW, 6974, the detenu's learned counsel submitted that the Divisional Commissioner's order was arbitrary and illegal, in that, it, inter alia, suffered from non-application of mind because the grounds, on the basis whereof, it had been issued, were unwarranted and even otherwise based on unfounded and baseless presumption of the likelihood of detenu's release on bail for which there was absolutely no material on records and the detention was thus liable to be quashed.