Ummu Sabeena vs State Of Kerala & Ors

3. It is not in dispute that the facts in all the cases are the same. Common ground is that an order of detention under Section 3 of the COFEPOSA was served on all the detenus on 10th March, 2011 on whose behalf petitions were filed before the High Court and therefore, their detention under the COFEPOSA commenced on and from 10th March, 2011. In these proceedings, we are not going into the merits of the grounds or the recitals thereof.

5. The admitted facts are that representations were made by the detenus on the 30th March, 2011 and the same were rejected by the State Government on 8th April, 2011. But the Central Government took time till 6th 3 June, 2011 to reject the same. This delay on the part of the Central Government in the rejection of the detention representation has been sought to be explained on the basis of an affidavit filed on behalf of the Central Government.

6. Our attention has been drawn to the said affidavit which has been filed by one A.K. Sharma, Under Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, COFEPOSA Section, New Delhi. The purported explanation has been given in para 3 of the said affidavit. A perusal of para 3 of the affidavit reveals that the representation dated 30th March, 2011 was forwarded by the State Government of Kerala to the Central Government by their letter dated 16th April, 2011 and the same was received in the COFEPOSA Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, New Delhi on 21st April, 2011. It has been observed that 22nd April, 2011 to 24th April, 2011 were holidays. Thereafter parawise comments on the representation were called for from the Additional Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the detaining authority i.e. Government of Kerala on 25th April, 2011. The comments were received on 10th May, 2011. The comments of the detaining authority were received on 18th May, 2011. Then the COFEPOSA Section submitted the 4 file along with all the relevant files and documents to the Deputy Secretary, COFEPOSA on 18th May, 2011 for examination. After detailed examination of the issues raised in the representations and comments of the Sponsoring Authority and the detaining authority, the Deputy Secretary submitted the file with comprehensive note to the Joint Secretary, COFEPOSA on 3rd June, 2011. 4th and 5th June, 2011 were Saturday and Sunday and ultimately, the said representations were considered and rejected by the Central Government on 6th June, 2011 as being devoid of merit.

14. Going by the aforesaid precedents, as we must, we hold that the procedural safeguards given for protection of personal liberty must be strictly followed. The history of personal liberty, as is well known, is a history of insistence on procedural safeguards.

19. Reference in this connection may be made to the Law of Habeas Corpus by James A. Scott and Charles C. Roe of the Chicago Bar [T.H. Flood & Company, Publishers, Chicago, Illinois, 1923] where the learned authors have dealt with this aspect in a manner which we should reproduce as we are of the view that the same is the correct position in law:

23. Following the aforesaid time-honoured principles, we make it very clear that if we uphold such technical objection in this proceeding and send the matter back 10 to the High Court for reagitation of this question, the same would deprive the detenus of their precious liberty, which we find, has been invaded in view of the manner in which their representations were unduly kept pending. We, therefore, overrule the aforesaid technical objection and allow these appeals.

24. We direct that the detenus should be set at liberty forthwith unless they are required to be detained in connection with any other case.

25. The appeals are accordingly allowed.