Iqbal Ahmed Ansari, J.

1. "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801-1809)

Article 21 is one of the most cherished provisions in our Constitution, which prohibits the State from depriving a person of his life and liberty except according to the procedure established by law. However, what happens if by the State's action, which has been neither sanctioned by a legislation nor has been taken in valid exercise of its executive powers, the ineffaceable mandate of Article 21 gets smudged. This is precisely the issue, which the appellant has been, for almost a decade of litigation, urging the court to decide. Having been unsuccessful in his attempt to convince the Court in his writ petition of the correctness and righteousness of his contentions, the appellant is, now, before us, seeking a revisit to his submissions.

1a. Some of the prominent questions, which have arisen for determination, in this appeal, are:

(i) Whether 'Central Bureau of Investigation', popularly called CBI, is a con