- (1.) THE petitioners in these two writ petitions complain that their liberty has been infringed on account of their unlawful detention under the provisions of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 (hereinafter called 'the Act'). We shall examine the validity and legality of their detention in the light of the fundamental right enshrined in Article 22 of the Constitution of India and the procedural safeguards provided under the Act.
(2.) AS the case of both the petitioners is common and the grounds of their detention are identical, it would be proper to dispese of both the petitions by a common order. We will, however, mention the facts with reference to the writ petition No. 2223 of 1974. The facts are brief and simple The two petitioners namely, Bhagwan Das, and Nathmal, are brothers and ate partners carrying on their partnership business at Sikar under the name and style of M/s Ramesh Kumar Bhagwan Das. They deal in general merchandise and according to them, they carried on their business in a 'Thadi' (Wooden Cabin) situated at Jatia Bazar, Sikat. There was some dispute between the Municipal Board, Sikar and the 'Thadi' holders, as the Board intended to remove the wooden cabins. On June 28, 1974, the wooden cabins including the 'Thadi' of the petitioners are alleged to have been forcibly removed. The petitioner Bhagwan Das was the President of the 'Thadi' holders Association at that time and he presided over a public meeting held in the night of June 28, 1974 to lodge a protest and express resentment of the 'Thadi' holders. On June 29, 1974, the Additional District Magistrate, Sikar along with a police party raided the house, shop and godowns of the petitioners and seized huge quantities of Match Boxes, Soap cakes (both bathing and washing), Soap Bars, Torch cells and shaving blades. Besides the above, huge stocks of medicines, used as pain relievers, like Novalgin, Saridon, Avedan, Anolzin, Cibazol, Anandkar and Anacin were also recovered from the aforesaid premises belonging to the two petitioners. The account books including 'Rokar' and Bill Books were also seized The petitioners were also arrested and a case registered against them for offences under Sections 3/7 of the Essential Commodities Act, but they were released on bail on July 4, 1974 Then on July 8, 1974, the District Magistrate, Sikar served upon the petitioners orders of detention under Section 3 of the Act stating that their detention was necessary with a view to prevent them from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies essential to the community. The grounds of detention communicated to the petitioners read as under: 1. You are a partner of the firm M/s Ramesh Kumar Bhagwan Das in town Sikar, and you are dealing in business of essential and useful commodities for life like soaps, tea, blades, battery cells and matches. From the dated 29/6/74 to 1/7/74, District Police, Sikar, raided and took search of your house, shop and godowns situated at Sikar and from your possession recovared 94, 881 match sticks, 17.274 bathing soap cakes, 10 645 cloth washing soap cakes, 4,815 cloth washing soap bars, 10,745 blades and 2 465 battery cells. You had not displayed price list and stock position on your KAROBAR (business) which was necessary to be displayed under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 read with the Rajasthan (Display of Prices of Essential Commodities) Order, 1966. 2. On 29th and 30th June, 1874, the Drug Inspector took search of your Godown situaied at Sikar and recovered therefrom pain -relieving (sic) 1301 tables of Novalgin, 810 tablets of Saridon, 620 tablets of Avedan, 900 tablets of Anolzin, 2000 tablets of Cibazol 1346 tablets of Anacin and 12096 tablets of Anandkar; for possessing and selling which you had not obtained a licence. You had unlawfully hoarded these pain -relieving medicines which are useful for life, for profiteering keeping in view the scarcity of these in the market. 3. You had hoarded unlawfully these essential articles useful for life in such large quantity with the intention of profiteering by selling them in the black marker, so that, you may create an artificial scarcity with the object of charging any price you like from the customers. Because there is scarcity of these articles in the market at this time and the public is feeling difficulty in procuring them, and as such, you have made their availability difficult for the public by hoarding them for your selfish and unlawful profiteering.
(3.) IN this way you have created a great obstruction in the supply of essential articles useful for life to the public. Hence for the purpose of preventing you from carrying on such activities in future and for the purpose of facilitating the availability of these essential articles useful for life to the public, it has been found essential to detain you end therefore you have been detained under Section 3(1)(a)(iii) of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971. By this you are informed of the grounds of detention as required by Section 8 of the said Act. 4. Mr. Bhargava, leraned Counsel for the petitioners argued that the grounds of detention supplied to the two petitioners are non -exitent or false, irrelevant and ambiguous or vague. In respect of the first charge, Mr. Bhargava argued that he ground No 1 speaks of one shop of the petitioners, which was wooden cabin situated in Jatia Bazar, Sikar was demolished on June 28, 1974 the petitioners were not left with any shop at all which could be searched from 29th June to 1st July, 1974 as his been mentioned in ground No. 1. On account of the removal of the wooden cabin, which was the only place of business of the petitioners, there was no question of displaying either the price list or the stock position. He, therefore, argued that the allegations about the search of the shop of the petitioners from 29th June to 1st July, 1974 and that the petitioners did not display the price list and stock position on their shop were to tally false and non -existent The learned Additional Advocate General urged in reply that the petitioners have another shop under the house of Dr J.P. Tak, also situate in Jatia Bazar, Sikar and it is that shop which was searched and the recoveries were made and it was at that shop that the price list and stock position was not displayed by the petitioners. He placed reliance upon the seizure memo Ex, R/1, which was prepared on July 1, 1974 after the search was made and bears the signatures of the two petitioners According to the respondents, the petitioners had two shops of which one was the wooden cabin referred to by the petitioners and the other was a pucca shop mentioned in Ex. R/1.;