Judgment

O. CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- Kanchanlal Maneklal Chokshi who is in preventive detention under the provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 and whose petition for the issue of a Writ of Habeas Corpus was rejected by the High Court of Gujarat is the appellant in this appeal. The High Court, while rejecting the petition, granted a certificate under Article 133 (1) of the Constitution that the case involved a substantial question of law of general importance which needed to be decided by the SC. The substantial question of law so certified was whether it is necessary for the detaining authority to consider whether a person should be prosecuted before an order of detention is made against him. The Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court in rejecting the particular contention of the appellant purported to follow an earlier decision of another Division Bench of the same Court in Ashok Murlidhar v. State of Gujarat, Spl. Criminal Appln. No. 230 of 1978. In that case Divan C. J., and Majumdar, J., though inclined to the view that the possibility of a criminal prosecution being a launched should be present to the mind of the det