JUDGMENT

Arijit Pasayat, J.-The Union of India, Joint Secretary COFEPOSA, Commission of Customs-II, Madras and State of Tamil Nadu question the legality of the judgment rendered by a learned Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashing order of detention dated 19.12.95 passed in respect of one Ratan Bagaria under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as the COFEPOSA Act ). Before the order of detention could be served on Shri Ratan Bagaria, his wife Smt. Vidya Bagaria, the respondent herein, filed Habeas Corpus writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950 (in short the Constitution ) praying for issuance of writ or any other order quashing the order of detention passed by appellant No.2 herein who was the respondent No.2 in the writ petition. Several grounds touching legality of grounds on which the order of detention was passed were raised in the writ petition. The present appellants filed a counter affidavit. Primarily an objection was taken regarding the maintainability of the writ application before the order of detention was actually served and the dete