S.D.BAJAJ,J - (1.) DETENU petitioner Subnesh Verma works under the name and style of M/s Verma Beauty Centre in Kailash Market, Daulat Bazar, Patiala. On 21-4-1988 preventive staff of Central Excise Patiala, recovered from him, in his personal search, 11 gold biscuits of foreign origin weighing 1283.304 grams and valued at Rs. 4,01,674.14 The petitioner was produced before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Patiala, on the following day when he showed him marks of torture on his person and thereby secured from him an order for medical examination and thereafter on the basis of medical report obtained an order for his release on bail.
(2.) ON the basis of recovery aforesaid dated 21-4-1988 the detaining authority reached its subjective satisfaction to the effect that the petitioner was indulging in the concealing of and dealing with smuggled goods and consequently made against him the detention order Annexure P-1 based on grounds of detention Annexure P-2 on 17-10-1988. The petitioner has assailed the impugned order of detention on 13 grounds enumerated in clauses (a) to (m) of paragraph 18 of his Criminal Writ Petition No. 48 of 1989. Salient amongst them which go to the very root of the legality of the detention order Annexure P-1 are that the detention order was passed mechanically, without any application of mind, is mala fide and not based on the subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority because the facts regarding the detenu petitioner having been tortured in the custody of the preventive staff of Central Excise on 21-4-1988 and having been admitted to bail by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Patiala, on this score were not in the knowledge of the detaining authority while clamping the order of detention upon the petitioner; that the order of detention having been passed on 20-10-1988 six months after the alleged recovery dated 21-4-1988 there was no nexus or proximity between the attributed act and the reasons for detention and that the confession secured by the customs authorities from the petitioner was retracted by him on the very next day viz. 22-4-1988 when he was produced before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Patiala, on the first available opportunity.
(3.) A bare perusal of the detention order Annexure P-1 adequately substantiates all the three pleas raised by the detenu petitioner against its legality. In fact, there is no mention therein of the submissions made by the petitioner before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate on 22-4-1988 and the orders passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate thereon on the same day both in regard to medical examination of the detenu petitioner and thereafter for his release on bail on perusal of the medical report of such examination.;