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2018 (9) TMI 586 - DELHI HIGH COURTDetention of person - Section 3(1) of COFEPOSA Act - Bail Application - prayer is for direction to the respondents to place on record the said detention order - Smuggling in arms and ammunition/pistol - Held that:- In the present case the facts not in dispute are that far from avoiding the processes of law, the petitioner responded to the notices issued to him by the DRI. In the first instance after being detained for more than two months he applied for and obtained statutory bail under Section 167(2) Cr. PC. That order, as already noted, was subject to stringent conditions including an LOC having to be opened by the authorities to ensure that the petitioner is not able to leave the country notwithstanding that his passport is in the custody of the DRI. It is not the case of the respondents that any of those conditions have been violated by the petitioner - If indeed the petitioner was refusing to co-operate in the investigations concerning him, an application ought to have been filed before the Learned CMM for cancellation of his bail. There is no such application till date - Thirdly, the petitioner did respond to the SCN issued by the DRI on 13th October, 2017. He appeared before the Adjudicating Authority i.e. the Principal Commissioner of Customs (Preventive) along with his Advocate on 24th October 2017. The Court would like to add that in the instant case, even when the DRI challenged the order dated 9th October, 2017 of the CMM before this Court, the petitioner in response to the notice issued by this Court filed an affidavit. It is not as if, therefore, the petitioner has tried to avoid the process of law. Mr. Diwakar was unable to point out how the case of the petitioner on merits was any different from that of the co-detenues. The only explanation offered is that while the co-detenues underwent some period of detention, the petitioner did not. If on merits, the case of the petitioner is no different from that of the co-detenues and the detention orders in respect of the co-accused have not been confirmed by the Advisory Board, the Court sees no purpose being served in the petitioner being detained on the basis of the impugned detention order, the grounds for which are no different from the detention orders issued in respect of the co-detenues, which have not been confirmed by the Advisory Board. The Court is also not satisfied that any serious attempt was made during the time when the detention order in respect of the co-detenues was still alive, to execute the impugned detention order to take the petitioner into custody despite the DRI knowing of his participation in the adjudication proceedings pursuant to the SCN issued by it. That stage having been crossed, the Court has no hesitation in holding that the detention order issued in respect of the petitioner has ceased to serve any purpose whatsoever. The Detention Order quashed - petition allowed.
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