- (1.) The Petitioners in these cases were originally detained under the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1930 (as amended by the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1950). On petitions filed under Section 491, Code Criminal Procedure, this Court issued rules, giving rise to Miscellaneous Case No. 51, etc., of 1950. These were heard by a Special Bench consisting of Sen, Chunder and Lahiri JJ. The judgment of the Special Bench, hereinafter called the 1st Special Bench, was delivered on February 27, 1950. The 1st Special Bench held that the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1930, was void and that the detention of the Petitioners was illegal.
(2.) Meanwhile, the Parliament had passed the Preventive Detention Act (Act IV of 1950). The Act received the assent of the President on February 25, 1950. Thereafter, the orders of detention passed under the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1930, were cancelled and fresh orders of detention under the Preventive Detention Act (Act IV of 1950) were served on each of the Petitioners in the present case.
(3.) The Petitioners then moved the 1st Special Bench and obtained the present rules on February 28, 1950. The rules were made returnable on March 7, 1950. These were heard in part by a Special Bench consisting of the learned Chief Justice, Sen and Banerji JJ. This Special Bench will be spoken of, hereinafter, as the 2nd Special Bench. In the course of the hearing before the 2nd Special Bench, the learned Chief Justice and Banerji J. differed from the view of the 1st Special Bench on a fundamental question. viz., whether the validity of a legislation dealing with preventive detention, otherwise lawfully enacted, could be debated in Court on the ground of the reasonableness of its provisions.;