- (1.) THIS petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution, challenges the detention order of Kailash Soni filed by his father Shambhoo Lal Soni made under section 3 (2) of the National Security Act, 1980 (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Act') dated 27/5/1992.
(2.) THE District Superintendent of Police, Ajmer sent a report on 26/5/1992 to the Collector and Distt. Magistrate, Ajmer that an anti-social gang is indulging in obtaining naked and half naked photographs of girls and women and published the same in the newspapers, as a result of which public of Ajmer and several Social Organisations had agitated and even gone on hunger strike against Kailahs Soni and his associates. Those persons had been called as 'sexual Blackmailers'. THE public of Ajmer consistently making a demand for their arrest. In this report, the Distt. Superintendent of Police stated that the activities indulged into by the gang was serious and there was every likelihood of breach of peace and public order and even tempo of the life of the community, The Collector and Distt. Magistrate, Ajmer then passed an order under sec. 3 (2) of the Act on 27/5/1992 against Kailash Soni and his associates on the satisfaction that the circumstances prevailing in Ajmer were such with respect to Kailash Soni and others that with a view to preventing them from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Ajmer and maintenance of public order, it was necessary to detain them. The report of the Distt. Superintendent of Police and the order of the Collector and Distt. Magistrate have been filed alongwith the petition as Annexures 1 and 2 respectively. Kailash Soni was, thereafter, as required by Section-8 of the Act sent a copy of the grounds of detention by the Collector and Distt. Magistrate, Ajmer. In the affidavit filed bysmt. Aditi Mehta, who was the Collector and Distt. Magistrate, Ajmer at that time deposed that the detention order dated 27/5/1992 was passed by her after going through the report of the Distt. Superintendent' of Police dated 26/5/1992, memorandums of several Social Organisations, photographs of the girls with Kailash Soni and his associates. The detention order was confirmed by the State Government under section 12 of the Act on 6. 06. 1992. Section 12 (1) of the National Security Act reads as under: - "action upon the report of the Advisory Board- (1) In any case where the Advisory Board has reported that there is, in its opinion, sufficient cause for the detention of a person, the appropriate Government may confirm the detention order and continue the detention of the person concerned for such period as it thinks fit. " Challenging the detention-order the petitioner's counsel raised several contentions. These contentions were that (1) the order was vague and uncertain; (2) it did not record that it had been passed in public interest; (3) the grounds were not simultaneously prepared; (4) the Collector and Distt. Magistrate passed the detention order without seeing and considering the photographs; (5) it was not modulated in the: form as it was required to be under the National Security Act and that it was malafide being based on irrelevant considerations.
(3.) THE validity of the National Security Act was challenged before the Supreme Court in the case reported in A. K. Roy V/s. Union of India (1 ). The preamble of the National Security Act mentions "an Act to provide for preventive detention in certain cases and for matters connected therewith". Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Act shows that in the prevailing situation of communal disharmony, social tensions, extremist activities and increasing tendency, on the part of various interested parties to engineer agitation on different issues, it was considered necessary by the Parliament that the law and order situation in the country was tackled in a most determined arid effective way. The anti-social and anti-national elements who adversely influence and affect the services essential to the community pose a grave challenge to the lawful authority and sometimes even hold the society to ransom. ;