JUDGMENT

Rajendra Babu, J.—Leave granted.

2. A writ petition was filed in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana challenging the validity of the order of detention passed against the respondent under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) directing the detention of the respondent by an order made on 9.6.1998. It appears that the respondent filed a writ petition before the High Court of Delhi challenging the validity of the said detention order which was, however, withdrawn on 15.7.1998 with liber­ty to file a fresh writ petition, if need be. Therefore a petition was filed before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana and in the course of the petition filed before it the fact of having filed a writ petition before the High Court of Delhi was not disclosed. But, on the other hand, it is stated that no petition had been filed in any of the courts, including the Supreme Court for the identical relief that had been sought for in the petition filed before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The High Court took note of the fact that on 19.6.1997 the officials of the Enforcement Directorate,