Judgment

- This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the Delhi High Court whereby the High Court dismissed the writ petition of the appellant challenging the validity of his detention under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974, hereinafter referred to as the Act.

2. Information was received in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (for short DRI) that the appellant was engaged in receipt, storage and disposal of smuggled gold on a large scale. On a specific information received on March 11, 1987 that large quantity of gold had been received by the appellant and stored at his instance in various premises, the DRI mounted a discreet surveillance in the vicinity of the residence of the appellant. Shorn of all details, it may be stated that 100 foreign marked gold biscuits, each weighing 10 Tolas, were seized from Uttam Chand, a milk vendor. It was disclosed by Uttam Chand that the said gold had been given to him by the appellant. He also disclosed that the appellant had given him 300 gold biscuits. The remaining 200 gold biscuits were taken away from Uttam Chand by Raj Kumar alias Chhotu, the servant of the appellant. Raj Kumar alias Chhotu, however, disclosed that he had delivered the said 200 gold biscuits to one Bhuramal Jain of E/19, Ashok Vihar, phase-I, New Delhi. The search of the residence of Bhuramal Jain resulted in the recovery of the said 200 biscuits of foreign marked gold from a zipper bag.

3. It is the case of the detaining authority that the appellant Vijay Kumar had, at the instance of one Dubai based smuggler Mohideen, agreed to receive and dispose of smuggled foreign marked gold biscuits in Delhi, which would be supplied to him by two men of Mohideen, named Chandra Bhan and M.P., for a monetary consideration. It is alleged that pursuant to that arrangement, the appellant had received in all 1150 biscuits of foreign marked gold of 10 Tolas each from the said Chandra Bhan and M. P. between the end of January, 1987 and March 7, 1987. A part of this quantity of smuggled gold was alleged to have been delivered by the appellant to one Prakash Luniya and another part of it was, from time to time, stored by the appellant in the residence of Uttam Chand, who had been engaged by the appellant to store such smuggled gold on behalf of the appellant for a monetary consideration. As stated already, 300 smuggled gold biscuits were seized by the DRI officers on March 11, 1987. These 300 gold biscuits each weighing 10 Tolas, that is, in all 3000 Tolas, were valued at Rs. 92,33,620/-.

4. A provisional order of detention of the appellant dated April 1, 1987 was passed by the respondent No. 2, Mr. Tarun Roy, Joint Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, New Delhi, the detaining authority, under section 3(l) of the Act, with a view to preventing the appellant from dealing in the smuggled goods otherwise than (or) by engaging in transporting or concealing or keeping smuggled goods. The order of detention and the grounds of detention both dated April 1, 1987 were duly communicated to the appellant by the detaining authority.

5. The case of the appellant was referred to the Advisory Board constituted under sub-clause (a) of clause (4) of Article 22 of the Constitution of India for its opinion whether there was sufficient cause for the detention of the appellant. The Advisory Board, after hearing the petitioner, submitted its report dated May 13,1987. The Central Government by its order dated June 24, 1987, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 8(f) of the Act, confirmed the detention of the appellant and directed that under section 10 of the Act the appellant would be detained for a period of one year from the date of his detention, that is, from April 2, 1987.

6. At this stage, it may be stated that before the order of detention was passed by the detaining authority, the appellant Vijay Kumar was arrested on a charge