- (1.) The petitioner herein who is & graduate of the University of Cambridge and a Barrister-at-law, applies to this Court under the provisions of Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issue of a writ of habeas corpus directing the respondents to produce him before this Court :and set him at liberty forthwith.
(2.) According to the affidavit filed in support of the application it is stated that while he was residing permanently in "Baibhuvan", Sandhurst Road, Bombay, he was arrested on 24-6-1950 by the Bombay Police at Kishori Court, Worli Sea Pace, Bombay, where he and his wife had been invited to stay for a day. No warrant was shown to him at the time of his arrest. He was taken to the office of the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, where a detention order of the same date was served on him. On 27-6-1950 one Mr. H. S. Bhat, an advocate of the Bombay High Court, wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Police, Greater Bombay, stating that he had been instructed by the wife of the petitioner to move the High Court of Bombay about the arrest and detention of the petitioner and for that purpose he requested the Commissioner to send him the grounds of detention immediately. It is stated that the Commissioner of Bombay did not supply the advocate with any grounds of detention. On 5-7-1950, the Government of Bombay, Home Department, Bombay Special, sent a telegram to the Government of Madras, which reads as follows : "Secret. No. S. C. II/991-I. Shri Surendra Mohan Kamaramangalam, top ranking communist of Madras, has been arrested and detained by Bombay Police. Arrest was effected mainly because he was wanted by Madras Police for detention. There is not much specific material to form basis of grounds to sustain his detention in Bombay. Bombay Government, therefore, propose to transfer him to Madras and solicits Madras Government's consent under Section 2(1) of Transfer of Detained Persons Act, 1949. Intimation of consent and also name and place of jail in Madras to which shri Kumaramangalam should be transferred may please be sent by wire." On 7-7-1950, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras, sent a telegram to the Government of Bombay stating that the Madras Government agreed to the transfer of Surendra Mohan Kumaramangalam, to this State and that he may be transferred to the Central Jail, Vellore, North Arcot District. Copies of the detention order and grounds therefor were also asked for. On 87-1950, the wife of the petitioner wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Police, Greater Bombay, requesting the Commissioner not to transfer the petitioner from Bombay to Madras, because an application for a writ of habeas corpus has already been filed in the High Court of Bombay against the arrest and detention of the petitioner and that the same was coming up for hearing on 10-7-1950. The letter also states that the request for not transferring the petitioner from Bombay to Madras was made so that the object of the petition in the Bombay High Court may not be defeated in case the petitioner succeeded in getting a writ of habeas corpus in his favour. The last para. of the letter informed the Commissioner that if in spite of this request, the petitioner was transferred to Madras, the matter would be brought to the notice of the High Court of Bombay when the case comes up for hearing. We are informed by the petitioner's counsel that the petitioner was removed from Bombay by train on 8-7-1950 but whether it waa before or after the receipt of the letter of the same date from the wife of the petitioner, is not clear, though a copy of the acknowledgment filed along with the copy of the letter shows that the letter was received in the office of the Commissioner of Police on 8-7-1950 itself. The petitioner was brought to Vellore on 10-7-1950 and has been confined as a detenu within the precincts of the Vellore Central Jail ever since.
(3.) An application under Section 491, Criminal P. C., which had been filed in the Bombay High Court on 7-7-1950 came up for hearing on 12-7-1950 before Dixit and Chainani JJ. who made the following order : "The learned Additional Assistant Government Pleader informs us that the order of detention is cancelled. The matter will stand over until tomorrow." On the same date we find a telegram from the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, to the Superintendent, Central Jail, Vellore, wherein it is stated that the detention order issued by the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, against Surendra Mohan Kumaramangalam, has been cancelled and that the Bombay High Court has given directions that he should be released at once if there is no other order or anything against him. The Commissioner of Police, Bombay, wanted to be informed as to the action taken. A copy of this telegram was also forwarded to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, C. I. D., Madras. On 13-71950, when the habeas corpus application was again taken up in the Bombay High Court, the learned Judges made the following order : "The learned Additional Assistant Government Pleader informs that an order for the appellant's release has been sent. In view of this no order is necessary on this application." Evidently, the order of release mentioned by the learned Judges refers to the telegram of 12th July sent by the Commissioner of Police Bombay to the Superintendent, Central Jail, Vellore. The petitioner states that he has not been released in pursuance of the telegram from the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, to the Superintendent of the Central Jail at Vellore.;