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TMI Blog2017 (1) TMI 398X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hen he was served with the order of detention. He was also detained and lodged in the Central Jail, Tihar in execution of the said order of detention. On 21.11.2013 and 22.11.2013, the appellant was served with the Grounds of Detention as well as copies of certain relied upon documents with translation thereof. According to the appellant, complete set of documents, which were relied upon by the respondents, were not supplied. He made a representation on 03.12.2013 to the detaining authority requesting revocation of the detention order or in the alternative supply complete documents/information, which was followed by another representation dated 06.12.2013. According to the appellant, these representations were not considered. He filed the writ petition in the High Court of Delhi inter alia for issuance of Writ of Habeas Corpus with a direction to the respondents to set the appellant to liberty forthwith and for quashing of the detention order dated 23.09.2009. This petition was contested by the respondents. 2. The High Court has dismissed the writ petition vide judgment dated 18.03.2014. It may be commented at this stage itself that though the High Court has accepted the plea of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g documents were found and seized. Likewise, from the residential premises of the appellant, apart from similar incriminating documents, Indian currency of Rs. 64,35,000/- was seized. During the searches, statements of various persons were recorded, particulars whereof are given along with utterances by those persons in nutshell. 'Grounds of Detention' also refer to the summons which were issued to the appellant pursuant to which his statement was recorded and gist of the said statement is incorporated in the grounds. Various admissions recording Hawala transactions given by the appellant in his statement are also mentioned. Retraction of the statement is also taken note of, stated to have been considered by the Department but found to be an afterthought. 6. As mentioned above, in the writ petition filed by the petitioner in the High Court, plea taken by the appellant to challenge the detention order was failure on the part of the respondents to supply certain relied upon documents contained in pages 1 to 25, mentioned in the statement of one Pooran Chand Sharma, recorded on 03.09.2009. In the Grounds of Detention, statement of Pooran Chand Sharma is referred to from parag ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of detention. The document with the entry formed the basis of the assertions made in paragraphs 37, 38 and 41 of the grounds of detention. " 8. Notwithstanding the same, the High Court has taken the view that paragraphs relating to seizure details in case of Pooran Chand Sharma implicating the appellant constitute a separate ground, which was severable on the application of the principle of segregation, as the detention order was based on multiple grounds. Thereafter, the High Court order points out various grounds mentioned in the detention order holding them to be different grounds. The contention of the appellant that 'Grounds of Detention' in the instant case are composite and not separate is rejected with the aid of certain decisions rendered by this Court. 9. Mr. Chaudhri, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant, submitted that there was only one ground of detention on the basis of which order in question was passed, namely, 'preventing him (i.e. the appellant) from acting in any manner prejudicial to the conservation and augmentation of foreign exchange in future' and the Grounds of Detention which were given in support thereof were, in fact, v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ods, etc., but none of these grounds is invoked while passing the detention order. He also submitted that in the 'Grounds of Detention' itself it was stated by the detaining authority that the so-called activities enumerated therein 'cumulatively indicate' the activities of the appellant and others with whom he was associated in Hawala dealings. This was the position taken even in the counter affidavit filed by the respondents in the High Court. Therefore, the 'Grounds of Detention' need to be read cumulatively even as per the respondents, which would clearly show that these grounds were composite and not separate. It was argued that in such circumstances, the principle of severability could not be applied. In support of his submission, he referred to the judgment of this Court in A. Sowkath Ali v. Union of India & Ors. (2000) 7 SCC 148 where the issue of applicability of the principle of severability based on Section 5-A of the Act, which was invoked by the State, was discussed, and earlier judgments of this Court relied upon by both the parties were taken note of, as is clear from the following discussion contained therein: (SCC Headnote) "24. Reliance i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e the detention order bad, for in the view of this Court, such order of detention shall be deemed to have been made separately on each of such grounds. Therefore, even excluding the inadmissible ground, the order of detention can be justified. The High Court has also overruled the contention of the detenu in this regard and, in our opinion, rightly." 26. Learned counsel for the petitioner on the other hand places reliance on Vashisht Narain Karwaria v. State of U.P. [(1990) 2 SCC 629] This Court held: (SCC pp. 633-34, para 11) "11. Mr Dalveer Bhandari relying on Section 5-A of the Act urged that the order of detention should not be deemed to be invalid or inoperative merely on the ground that some extraneous materials were placed before the detaining authority since those alleged extraneous materials have no bearing on the validity of this impugned order which can be sustained on the material set out in the grounds of detention itself. Placing reliance on decision of this Court in Prakash Chandra Mehta v. Commr. and Secy., Govt. of Kerala wherein it has been observed that the 'grounds' under Article 22(5) of the Constitution do not mean mere factual inferences but mean factua ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y the learned counsel, reads as under: "15. Now, the proposition can hardly be disputed that if there is before the District Magistrate material against the detenu which is of a highly damaging character and having nexus and relevancy with the object of detention, and proximity with the time when the subjective satisfaction forming the basis of the detention order was arrived at, it would be legitimate for the Court to infer that such material must have influenced the District Magistrate in arriving at his subjective satisfaction and in such a case the Court would refuse to accept the bald statement of the District Magistrate that he did not take such material into account and excluded it from consideration. It is elementary that the human mind does not function in compartments. When it receives impressions from different sources, it is the totality of the impressions which goes into the making of the decision and it is not possible to analyse and dissect the impressions and predicate which impressions went into the making of the decision and which did not. Nor is it an easy exercise to erase the impression created by particular circumstances so as to exclude the influence of suc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion order is based on one ground alone or it is a case of multiple grounds on which the impugned detention order was passed. 16. In order to have proper analysis of the detention order, we will have to first understand the meaning that is to be attributed to the expression 'grounds' contained in Section 5A of the Act. In Vakil Singh v. State of J. & K. & Anr. (1975) 3 SCC 545, following meaning was assigned to the expression 'grounds': "29. We have reproduced the particulars of the grounds of detention, in full, earlier in this judgment. Read as a whole they appear to be reasonably clear and self-sufficient to bring home to the detenue the knowledge of the grounds of his detention. The abbreviation F.I.U. occurs four times in these grounds, but each time in conjunction with PAK, and twice in association with the words "Pak Officers". The collocation of words and the context in which F.I.U occurs makes its purport sufficiently intelligible. "Grounds" within the contemplation of Section 8(1) of the Act means 'materials' on which the order of detention is primarily based. Apart from conclusions of facts, "grounds" have a factual constituent, also. They must contain ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he detenu, as soon as may be practicable, with reasonable expedition. It follows, that if in a case the so-called "grounds of detention" communicated to the detenu lack the basic or primary facts on which the conclusions of fact stated therein are founded, and this deficiency is not made good and communicated to the detenu within the period specified in Sec. 3(3) the omission will be fatal to the validity of the detention. If, however, the grounds communicated are elaborate and contain all the "basic facts" but are not comprehensive enough to cover all the details or particulars of the "basic facts", such particulars, also, must be supplied to the detenu, if asked for by him, with reasonable expedition, within a reasonable time. What is "reasonable time conforming with reasonable expedition", required for the supply of such details or further particulars, is a question of fact depending upon the facts and circumstances of the particular case. In the circumstances of a given case, if the time taken for supply of such additional particulars, exceeds marginally, the maximum fixed by the statute for communication of the grounds it may still be regarded "reasonable", while in the facts ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... would rest upon a part of the material which is irrelevant." The process of reasoning adopted by the High Court is absolutely unintelligible to us. It is manifest that whenever the allegations of smuggling are made against a person who is sought to be detained by way of preventing further smuggling, there is bound to be one act or several acts with the common object of smuggling goods which is sought to be prevented by the Act. It would, therefore, not be correct to say that the object of the Act constitutes the ground of detention. If this is so, in no case there could be any other ground for detention, except the one which relates to smuggling. In our opinion, this is neither the object of the Act nor can such an object be spelt out from the language in which Section 5-A is couched. What the Act provides is that where there are a number of grounds of detention covering various activities of the detenu spreading over a period or periods, each activity is a separate ground by itself and if one of the grounds is irrelevant, vague or unspecific, then that will not vitiate the order of detention. The reason for enacting Section 5-A was the fact that several High Courts took the vie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ; and the further particulars which are given in respect of those instances are the subsidiary details. This view of ours gets strengthened from the discussion in Vakil Singh's case where 'grounds' are referred to as 'materials on which the order of detention is primarily based'. The Court also pointed out that these 'grounds' must contain the pith and substance of primary facts but not subsidiary facts or evidential details. 20. When we apply the aforesaid test to the facts of this case, we are inclined to agree with the conclusion of the High Court that the order of detention is based on multiple grounds inasmuch as various different acts, which form separate grounds, are mentioned on the basis of which the detaining authority formed the opinion that it was desirable to put the appellant under detention. The High Court has dissected the order of detention, which we find is the correct exercise done by the High Court, in paras 11 and 12 of the impugned judgment and, therefore, we reproduce the same: "11. We would, therefore, at this stage like to refer to the grounds mentioned in the detention order. Detention order in paragraph 1 states that the pet ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rtment on 24th April, 2009 at the places of Muralidhar resulting in seizure of documents and cash. Statement of Bharat Kumar recorded on different dates. It states that summons were issued to the petitioner for appearance but he did not appear. " 21. In fact, in this very manner, the matter was approached and dealt with by this Court, thereby upholding the detention order, in Prakash Chandra Mehta v. Commissioner and Secretary, Government of Kerala & Ors. 1985 (Supp.) SCC 144, as is clear from the following discussion therein: "71. Section 5-A stipulates that when the detention order has been made on two or more grounds, such order of detention shall be deemed to have been made separately on each of such grounds and accordingly that if one irrelevant or one inadmissible ground had been taken into consideration that would not make the detention order bad. xx xx xx 75. In the instant case, the ground of detention is the satisfaction of the detaining authority that with a view to preventing the detenu from acting in any manner prejudicial to the conservation or augmentation of foreign exchange or with a view to preventing the detenu from, inter alia, dealing in smuggled good ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssed its earlier judgment in Chamanlal Manjibhai Soni (already noted above) in identical manner in the case of Madan Lal Anand v. Union of India & Ors. (1990) 1 SCC 81. 23. We, thus, reject the contention of the appellant that, in the instant case, the detention order is based only on one ground. Once it is found that the detention order contains many grounds, even if one of them is to be rejected, principle of segregation contained in Section 5A gets attracted. 24. Other argument of the learned senior counsel for the appellant was that once there is an infringement of Article 22(5) of the Constitution, provisions of Section 5A of the Act would be inapplicable. Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India reads as under: "Article 22(5) When any person is detained in pursuance of an order made under any law providing for preventive detention, the authority making the order shall, as soon as may be, communicate to such person the grounds on which the order has been made and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against the order." This provision commands communication of the grounds on which the order of detention has been passed and to afford him t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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