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2018 (5) TMI 988 - HC - Indian LawsDetention of petitioners - Smuggling - COFEPOSA Act - detention of the petitioners stand vitiated on account of non supply of either the printed copies/ hard copies of the documents contained in the CDs. Held that: - It is well settled in law that the RUDs are an integral part and parcel of the GOD. The GOD contains the reasons and justification provided by the Detaining Authority on the basis of which he arrives at his subjective satisfaction regarding the necessity of preventively detaining of the detenue under Article 22 of the Constitution of India, read with Section 3 of the COFEPOSA Act. It is obligatory on the part of the Detaining Authority to supply copies of all the RUDs on which the subjective satisfaction of the Detaining Authority is based - The documents which are supplied on CDs, by themselves, are not viewable to the human eye. To read the documents on CDs, it is essential that the relevant hardware in the form of a CD player, or a laptop computer with the facility of reading the CD, or a Desktop computer with facility of reading a CD is employed. Without such aids, the person who is delivered the CD would never know as to what is the document, if any, contained therein. The CD is only a storage medium. To retrieve the documents stored therein, the necessary equipment is essential. Reliance placed on Section 3(3) of COFEPOSA Act is misplaced for the reason that the said section itself mandates that the grounds of detention must be communicated to the detenue soon after the detention “but ordinarily not later than five days”. The use of the negative language in Section 3(3) itself shows that the Parliament, in ordinary circumstances, did not consider it appropriate to grant more than five days to the Detaining Authority to serve the GOD and the RUD upon the detenue. However, in exceptional circumstances and for reasons to be recording in writing, not more than fifteen days from the date of detention, have been provided for the purpose of serving the GOD and the RUD on the detenue. The RUD contained in CDs taken note of herein above have been relied upon extensively in the GOD formulated by the Detaining Authority. The GOD are more or less identical in both the cases, since they stem out of the same transaction. The GODs repeatedly refer to the whatsapp messages contained in the CDs, as well as to the CDRs which have been relied upon by the Detaining Authority to establish the connection between the detenue and others concerned - The detention of the petitioners under Section 3(1) of the COFEPOSA Act cannot be sustained. Detention of petitioner set aside - petition allowed.
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