( 1 ) THE petitioner herein is the detenu who has been detained in pursuance of an order passed on 4/12/1980 by the Government of Gujarat. The order in passed under sec. 3 sub-sec. (1) of the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act 1980 (hereinafter called the Act) and it has been slated in the order of detention that with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies of commodity essential to the community it was necessary in the opinion of the State Government to detail him and that was the reason why the order of detention was passed. the grounds one detention dated 6/12/1980 were served upon the petitioner in proper manner. To the grounds of detention it has been stated in paragraph 3 that the petitioner is carrying on business at Rangola in Umrala Taluka of Bhavnagar District and at Pipardi village in Shihor Taluka of Bhavnagar District in the name and style of Nareshkumar Manojkumar and Company and he is dealing in light diesel oil (crude oil) in the name of this firm. On November 18 1580 in the early hours of the day at about 2-00 A. M. in the presence of the petitioner a search was carried on at Rangola at the petitioners place of business ard there a trailer bearing No 4364 was found parked with eleven barrels of crude on in the trailer. Each barrel contained 220 letters of crude oil. There was no entry in the petitioners stock register regarding the crude oil contained in these eleven barrels the explanati of the petitioner was that on 15/11/1980 that day being a Saturday ten thousand letters of crude oil were to be delivered at Rangola depot of the petitioner and that was the programme for delivery. But in fact the stock of crude oil was meant for the depot at Pipardi belonging to the petitioner. In the statement given by the petitioner on 19/11/1980 the petitioner claimed that on 17/11/1980 the petitioner had dispatched 34 barrels of crude oil that is 7480 letters of crude oil to Pipardi depot and in another statement of the same day the petitioner had stated that two tractor trailers each containing 14 barrels of crude oil and another tempo containing six barrels of crude oil in all thirtyfour barrels were despatched from Rangola to Pipardi.

( 2 ) IN paragraph 4 of the grounds of detention it has been stated that on 18/11/1980 in the presence of Panchas and in the presence of one Indubhai Haribhai Pandya who was looking after the business of the petitioner at Pipardi and who was also related to the petitioner the stock of crude oil available at the Pipardi depot of the petitioner was verified. The stock of crude oil found at Pipardi depot was 19 barrels that is 4180 litres of crude oil. In the stock register entries were found under the date 17/11/1980 showing sale of 1800 litres of crude oil in the course of the day. Looking to the supply of crude oil sent to Pipardi depot and considering the entries in the shock register regarding the sales and also considering the counterfoils of the bills for the sales which had been prepared and also considering the stock available at the time of verification it was found that there was a shortage of 15c0 litres of crude oil and neither the petitioner nor Indubhai Haribhai Pandya was able to give any explanation regarding this shortage of 1500 litres of crude oil. Thus according to the grounds of detention 1500 litres of crude oil had been disposed of without preparing bills in that behalf and this was done illegally. The statements of the residents of Pipardi village were recorded and those statements showed that the claim of the petitioner that six barrels of crude oil had been despatched to Pipardi depot was not correct because no such supply of six barrels had reached Pipardi depot and according to those residents six barrels of crude oil had been disposed of illegally.

( 3 ) ON 18/11/1980 4180 litres of crude oil found as stock at Pipardi depot was short by 8200 l