Judgment

SINHA J. : This application for a writ of hebeas corpus is directed against the State of Jammu and Kashmir which has by its order dated 4-10-1955, directed the detention of the petitioner under S. 3, Jammu and Kashmir Preventive Detention Act, (Jammu and Kashmir Act 4 of 2011) hereinafter to be referred to as "the Act".

Originally, the sole respondent impleaded was the State of Jammu & Kashmir. After a rule nisi was issued to the respondent, the Union of India intervened because the petitioner had challenged the validity of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.

2. The petitioner, P. L. Lakhanpal, aged approximately 28 years, describing himself as the Chairman, End Kashmir Dispute Committee, has moved this Court against the order of the State detaining him in Kothi Bagh sub-jail in Srinagar. The application is based on the following allegations. The petitioner is normally a resident of 9821, Nawabganj, Delhi 6. He went to Kashmir on a permit on 24th September this year "on a study-cum-pleasure trip".

He has been evincing keen interest in Kashmir politics since the year 1946, when as General Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party Lahore, he was closely associated with the "Quit Kashmir movement". Last year he wrote a book entitled "Communist Conspiracy in Kashmir", copies of which had been seized by the Delhi Police but were subsequently released.

The petitioner in the book aforesaid, as also elsewhere in the press and on the platform, claims to have been making "trenchant criticism of the Kashmir cabinet headed by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and also of the Government of India s policy in regard to Kashmir". He claims to be known as the supporter of Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, the former Prime Minister of Kashmir, and to have expressed the opinion that he "has been the victim of a heinous conspiracy motivated by lust for power between the communists and the rightists on the one hand and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the present Kashmir Prime Minister, on the other."

He also claims to have been advocating the cause of the ex-Prime Minister aforesaid of Kashmir whose detention has been severely criticized by him. He has "also publicly exposed and denounced the brutal excesses committed by the police and authorities under the Bakshi Government throughout the State". He has characterized the State Constituent Assembly as having forfeited the confidence of the people.

He claims to have "declared that the Bakshi cabinet, which in his view is dominated by the communists, is the corruptest, the most tyrannical and the most hated Government that the State has ever had". Similar views were expressed by him in telegrams said to have been sent to the Sadari-Riyasat of Jammu and Kashmir, to the President of India and to the Prime Minister of India. He claims to have organized a "persistent campaign to secure support for his views on Kashmir among the public and leaders of political thought".

The aforesaid activities of the petitioner, he further claims, have "provoked a bitter controversy between him and the Indian Prime Minister". In this connection he makes reference to certain statements said to have been made by the Prime Minister of India which it is not necessary to detail here except the following :-

"During the last few months, however, I have become aware of his (the petitioner s) activities and have inquired into them. These inquiries led me to the conclusion that these activities are of most objectionable character which can only help the enemies of our country".

The petitioner also claims to be the General Secretary of the World Democratic Peace Congress. In the connection he makes certain other allegations against the Prime Minister of India which are not relevant to the case. He also makes a grievance that it was reporter in a daily newspaper of Srinagar called Khidmat that the present Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir had described him as a traitor and an enemy of the Nation".

He then describes his activitie