JUDGMENT

S. B. MAJMUDAR, S. L. TALATI, J.

( 1 ) IN these two special criminal applications the concerned petitioners have prayed for a writ of habeas corpus or any other suitable writ under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for setting them at liberty by quashing the orders passed by the first respondent State of preventively detaining them in exercise of powers conferred on them by section 3 (1) of the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act 1980 hereinafter referred to as the Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

( 2 ) FACTS leading to Spl. Cr. Application No. 345/84. THE petitioner is working as a paid manager of one Shiv Shakti Consumers Co-operative Society Limited hereinafter referred to as the society. The said society employer of the petitioner is distributing controlled cloth as it is recognised by the Government as a wholesale dealer as well as a retail dealer under different licences. The society is governed by the provisions of the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act 1961 The controlled cloth was received by the society for distribution. During the working of the society certain illegalities and irregularities were noticed by the Department of Civil Supplies of the State of Gujarat. After due inspection the petitioner was served with an order of detention under section 3 (1) of the Act on 8. 6. 1984 and on that very day grounds of detention were furnished to the petitioner. The grounds are annexed to the petition as annexure A. It was alleged in these grounds that the petitioner was working as the manager of the society situated near Kalupur gate behind Pan Market in the city of Ahmedabad since last six years. The society is distributing the controlled cloth as in is recognized by the Government both as a wholesale dealer and also a retail dealer under two separate licences. That the Chairman of the society is one Arjundas Daswani. The petitioner was doing the work of the society. That on 18. 1. 1984. the Assistant Director and Investigating staff from the office of the Director of Food and Civil Supplies under the instructions from the Director have taken a surprise visit of the shop of the society and various defects were found out as a result of the said inspection. Amongst others. it was found that there was surplus stock of grey Dhoti patta while there was deficit of grey cloth and Dhoti Viramgam. These irregularities emerged on the verification of the stock position as existing in the books of account of the society on 18. 1. 1984. It has been further mentioned in the grounds of detention that in connection with defects found at the time of inspection bill book of the retail sale was seized in order to find out whether the bills were correct or not and on cross checking it was found that false bills were prepared as under: (A) Through the inspecting staff cross checking of 35 bills of sale was done. In this connection out of 35 bills in 27 bills the persons in whose names the bills were prepared were found not residing at the address as given in the bills and in 5 bills of sale the persons shown in the bills had not purchased the stock of controlled cloth and the details shown in the bills were not correct. (B) The authorisation letter was given to the society for sale of controlled cloth to the card holders in Ahmedabad city. Inspite of that as shown in appendix B out of the 426 bills in the bill book which had been seized 50 bills of sale were prepared in the names of persons living outside. (D) In the city of Ahmedabad the last serial number of the cards which were printed for the families was 475000. Beyond this serial number no card was printed for the families. However bills were prepared showing bogus card numbers and stock was disposed of in an unauthorised manner. It was further stated in the grounds of detention that one Chunilal Chhaganlal Shah (petitioner in companion writ petition) who is holding a fair price shop was issued a licence (authorisation lett