MOHAN ALIAS MOHAN REDDY Vs. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HABEAS Corpus Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying to issue a Writ of HABEAS Corpus, to call for the records on the file of the 1st respondent in connection with Memo No.144/BDFGISSV/2008, dated 11.6.2008 and quash the same and produce the detenu Mohan @ Mohan Reddy, son of Subba Reddy, before this Court and to set him at liberty, who is now confined at Central Prison No.II, Puzhal, Chennai.) The petitioner is the detenu. He filed this petition, challenging the detention order passed against him, branding him as an 'Immoral Traffic Offender' under the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982 (Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 1982).

(2.) EARLIER, the very same detention order of the petitioner/detenu was challenged by his wife Smt.Jyothi, by filing Habeas Corpus Petition No,919 of 2008 and this Court, by an elaborate and considered order dated 15.10.2008, has dismissed the same. It has been submitted before us that no appeal has been filed as against the said order of this Court and thus it has reached its finality. In this backdrop, the petitioner/detenu hinmself has come forward to file this petition, challenging the order of detention passed against him.

(3.) THE question relating to res judicata in habeas corpus petition was considered by the Honourable Apex Court in several cases. In T.P.Moideen Koya Vs. Government Of Kerala [(2004) 8 SCC 106], a Three Judge Bench of the Honourable Apex was dealing with a matter wherein after the habeas corpus petition under Article 226, seeking quashing of the detention order passed against the petitioner and for setting him at liberty had been dismissed by the High Court, the matter was carried in appeal to the Supreme Court by filing a petition under Article 136. After leave was granted, the appeal was dismissed by a detailed judgment, wherein all the contentions raised laying challenge to the detention order and also to the continued detention of the petitioner had been considered. In the said case, considering all the facts and circumstances and after referring to the Constitution Bench judgment of the Apex Court in Ghulam Sarwar Vs. Union Of India [AIR 1967 SC 1335], the Honourable Apex Court has held as follows: