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Gujarat High Court
Judgename :K.J.VAIDYA, SHARAD D.DAVE
DILIPKUMAR AMRUTLAL GANATRA - Appellant
Versus
DISTRICT MAGISTRATE, rajkot - Respondent
S.CRI.A. 1400 of 1991
Decided On : 01/18/1992
Essential Commodities Act, 1980 – Section. 15 – Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies – Important questions of the paramount public importance that arise for our consideration in group of these 8 detention matters are as under : firstly, "whether enmass cyclostyled paroles granted to the detenu under sec. 15 of the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980 (for short bm Act) and that too on the basis of general policy adopted by the State Government that on every religious festivals like Diwali, Id , Xmas and Makarsankranti, etc. , the detenu may be temporarily released on parole without even waiting for the request application, in the first hand retrospectively vitiates the subjective satisfaction of the State Government regarding original order of detention passed by the Detaining Authority and/or on the other hand prospectively also same vitiates the further continued detention of the detenu ?" secondly, "whether Sec. 15 of the BM Act vests any absolute, unfettered and arbitrary powers in the State Government to lightly temporarily release the detenu on parole, unmindful of the underlying spirit and object of the bm Act for which he essentially and actually came to be preventively detained ?" and thirdly, "whether the guidelines prepared by the State Government for temporarily releasing the detenu on parole either on the ground of religious festivals and/or on the ground of illness, etc. , in later case without any in depth inquiry regarding the truthfulness and genuineness of the causes pleaded in support of the same, which ex-fade run counter to the preventive object of the BM Act can be said to be legal and valid exercise of powers and accordingly be permitted to continue as they are ? –Held, reason is that the danger to sovereignty of any country in substance to its peace, wellbeing and freedom of people is not as much and is from the external aggression by the foreign hostile countries, as the internal aggression by anti-socials and anti-nationals like black-marketers, smugglers, bootleggers and other terrorists and bullies who are bent upon relentlessly robbing common people of its peace, bread and freedom. This internal war goes on and on and it is for these reasons that the problems created by the anti-socials and anti-natibnals have to be treated on war-footing by seeing that the statutory functionaries guarding the frontiers are not in any way remiss or relaxed. In order to effectively comply with the various decisions of the Supreme Court and the High Court to make law enacted by the Legislature meaningful to the people, we hope that this time efforts made above would certainly make the State Government conscious of its duty in the matter of such preventive detention. We further sincerely hope that what has been explained in the judgment will betaken in right earnest and all its seriousness, and the needful will be done at the earliest to see that the respect and honour of the law which carry its fruits to the people is not adversely affected and let down by those whose duty is to enforce and implement the law. Like any lofty ideal and resolve, mere passing of any legislation by itself is not enough unless the same is rigorously backed up by equally matching zeal and zest of the State Government to effectively control the statutory functionaries and make them working in the lines of goals set by the particular Act – Rule accordingly made abso ute in all these petitions
( 1 ) THREE important questions of the paramount public importance that arise for our consideration in group of these 8 detention matters are as under : firstly, "whether enmass cyclostyled paroles granted to the detenu under sec. 15 of the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980 (for short bm Act) and that too on the basis of general policy adopted by the State Government that on every religious festivals like Diwali, Id , Xmas and Makarsankranti, etc. , the detenu may be temporarily released on parole without even waiting for the request application, in the first hand retrospectively vitiates the subjective satisfaction of the State Government regarding original order of detention passed by the Detaining Authority and/or on the other hand prospectively also, the same vitiates the further continued detention of the detenu ?" secondly, "whether Sec. 15 of the BM Act vests any absolute, unfettered and arbitrary powers in the State Government to lightly temporarily release the detenu on parole, unmindful of the underlying spirit and object of the bm Act for which he essentially and actually came to be preventively detained ?" and thirdly, "whether the guidelines prepared by the State Government for temporarily releasing the detenu on parole either on the ground of religious festivals and/or on the ground of illness, etc. , in later case without any indepth inquiry regarding the truthfulness and genuineness of the causes pleaded in support of the same, which ex-fade run counter to the preventive object of the BM Act can be said to be legal and valid exercise of powers and accordingly be permitted to continue as they are ? "
( 2 ) AT the very outset it may be stated, that at the joint request and with the consent of all the learned Advocates appearing for the respective parties, we have heard all these petitions together and accordingly therefore also propose to decide and dispose of the same by this common judgment. 2. 1. It may also be further stated that since in all these petitions, the questions raised and to be decided are all common questions of law which are capable of being decided on certain undisputed facts, we do not deem it necessary to unnecessarily burden the pages of this judgment by setting out each and every ground of detention in detail from each of these petitions save and except those few undisputed essential facts which are germane for the just appreciation and determination of the points involved.
( 3 ) FEW relevant facts : In order to have on the spot factual perspective emerging from the various grounds of detention, in each of these petitions, we for the sake of brevity and convenience, reproduce the relevant facts and circumstances from each of the petitions which are as under : (1) In Special criminal Application No. 1400 of 1991, the petitioner came to be detained by an order dated 9-9-1991 passed by the District Magistrate, Rajkot, for the alleged black-marketing activities of the essential commodity, namely, Edible oil. Thereafter, under Sec. 15 of the BM Act, he was temporarily released on parole; firstly on the ground of Diwali festival from 4-11-1991 to 11- 11-1991 and thereafter for one day on the ground of illhcalth - in all for 8 days. (2) In Special Criminal Application No. 1540 of 1991, the petitioner came to be detained by an order dated 30-8-1991 passed by the district Magistrate, Bhavnagar for the alleged black-marketing activities of the essential commodity, namely, LPG Gas Cylinders. Thereafter, he was temporarily released on parole from 7-9-1991 to 9-9-1991 (3 days), from 13-9-1991 to 17-9-1991 (4 days) and from 1-11-1991 to 8-11-1991 (8 days) - in all for 15 days. (3) In Special Criminal Application No. 1632 of 1991, the petitioner came to be detained by an order dated 19-10-1991 passed by the District Magistrate, Gandhinagar for the alleged black-marketing activities of the essential commodity, namely, Wheat. Thereafte
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