Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- Shri Madhu Limaye, M.P. moved this petition while he was prisoner, imbued more by the pro bone publico spirit than perhaps by his own invidious lot in jail. The gravamen of his public grievance is that a long silver jubilee span of years having elapsed after India became a Sovereign Democratic Republic, it is obnoxious that racial discrimination, smacking of colonial hangover, should stubbornly resist Arts. 14 and 15 of the Constitution and survive in the Punjab Jail Manual. If it were so, it were a matter to blush for, but the preliminary objection raised by the Solicitor General is that the petitioner having been freed from prison years ago, this Court should not be invited into an academic exercise on a constitutional issue. Of course, he concedes that the Court is not deprived of jurisdiction by the cessasion of incarceration. An inflexible rule that as soon as a custodial term or prohibitory order expires the Court will not investigate its legality may well immunize ephemeral illegality against judicial review - an unwitting infraction of the amplitude of the Court s powers.But there are cases and cases.

2. Mr. Santok Singh for the petitioner, has br