Judgement

WANCHOO, J. : These two writ petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution for a writ of habeas corpus raise common questions and will be dealt with together. We may set out the facts in one of the petitions (namely Petitions 55) in order to highlight the points raised on behalf of the petitioners. It is unnecessary to refer to the facts in the other petition as they are similar except that in the other case the original arrest took place on December 6 instead of December 8.

2. Sahib Singh Dugal petitioner was employed in the Posts and Telegraphs Directorate of the Central Government. He was arrested on December 8, 1964 and put in jail as an undertrial prisoner for an offence under S. 3 of the Official Secrets Act. Various remands were taken upto March 11, 1965 in connection with the criminal case against the petitioner. It appears that besides Dugal, eight other persons were also involved in the case under S. 3 of the Official Secrets Act, including Jagdev Kumar Gupta petitioner in petition No. 56 of 1965. On March 11, 1965, the Deputy Superintendent of Police who was apparently in-charge of the investigation made a report to the court to the effect that all the nine persons