JUDGMENT

Altamas Kabir, J.-These Special Leave Petitions and Writ Petitions are all directed against orders of preventive detention at the pre-execution stage. During the course of hearing, it was submitted on behalf of some of the Petitioners that the decision rendered in Addl. Secretary, Govt. of India vs. Alka Subhash Gadia1 [(1992) Supp. (1) SCC 496] that a preventive detention order could be challenged at the pre-execution stage on the five grounds enumerated in the judgment, was no longer good law on account of the subsequent enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005, hereinafter referred to as the “R.T.I. Act”, which came into force on 15th June, 2005. A connected question which was raised was whether the aforesaid decision in Alka Subhash Gadia’s case (supra) was per incuriam, since it did not have the occasion to notice subsequent decisions on the same question. Another question which was raised was whether the five instances indicated in Alka Subhash Gadia’s case (supra), under which a detention order could be challenged at the pre-execution stage, was exhaustive or whether they were only illustrative.

2. Since a decision on the points raised could effectively dec