( 1 ) IN this petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution the petitioner has challenged the order of externment passed against him by the sub-divisional Magistrate Palanpur under sec. 56 read with sec. 59 of the Bombay Police Act and as confirmed in appeal with modification by the Deputy Secretary Home Department State of Gujarat.

( 2 ) THE main grievance made by Mr. Raval for the petitioner is that the show cause notice served on the petitioner is hopelessly vague as it given no idea whatsoever to the petitioner as to which nefarious activities were alleged to have been committed in a given area or locality and for which period such nefarious activities were allegedly committed so that the petitioner could have given effective reply to the same. A copy of the show cause notice was placed for our scrutiny. It shall be taken on record of these proceedings. The said show cause notice issued under sec. 59 of the Act is in Gujarati. When translated into English the allegations made against him read as under:"1 By your presence or your acts it is likely that damage may be caused to persons and their properties and it would pose danger to them. 2 You are preparing to commit offences which involve force or violence and which are covered by chapters 16 and 17 of the I. P. Code or you are preparing to abet such offences. There are reasonable grounds for believing as aforesaid. In our view witnesses are not prepared because of your fear and with a view to safeguarding themselves and their properties to give evidence against you. 3 You are depriving persons of their properties by force and you are extorting money from them. 4 You are threatening to kill persons who may go as complainants against you and you compel them to withdraw complaints or to compromise. 5 You are misbehaving with ladies and you are trying to molest them and after beating them you are creating atmosphere of terror. 6 You put on unauthorized dress try to cheat the people and extort things from them by threatening them. 7 Having consumed liquor you are misbehaving in open. You threaten people. You are a head-strong ferocious person. Because of your fear atmosphere of terror is created in the people. There are sufficient reasons for the said belief. 8 You keep ornaments of tribal people on pledge. You involve in money lending but even through they return he money you refuse to return the ornaments and you quarrel with them. ] 9 Because of you illegal activities the following cases have been filed against you:- 1 Amirgadh police station Crime Register No. 11/84 sec. 170 114 I. P. C. registered on 27-1-1984. 2 Amirgadh police station Crime Register No. 72/84 sec. 454 I. P. C. registered on 7-6-1984

( 3 ) A mere look at the aforesaid allegations shows that they suffer from the vice of vagueness viz. (i) no period is mentioned during which the alleged nefarious activities have been carried on by the petitioner and (ii) no area or location is shown where such activities are carried on. These infirmities must be treated to be fatal infirmities. It must therefore; be held that the petitioner got no reasonable opportunity to show cause against the proposed externment on the allegations contained in the aforesaid show cause notice. It is true that in the inquiry the petitioner filed a reply to the show cause notice and that the externing authority passed the externment order on the basis of these allegations which are held proved by him and the appellate authority confirmed that order. However the fact remains that even from the inception the show cause notice containing such vague allegations has to be treated as a still born one. Mr. Mehta for the respondents invited our attention to the affidavit-in-reply para 7 wherein it is stated that the grounds furnished in the show cause notice are clear just and valid. This is mere ipse dixit on the part of the deponent who filed the affidavit on behalf of the respondents. Mr. Mehta next contended that the petitioner