THOTTATHIL B. RADHAKRISHNAN, J.

1. Ibrahim, Murugan, Abu Gani and Kareem Sadhik Basha detained under the provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974, for short, “COFEPOSA Act” are the beneficiaries of these writ petitions filed seeking issuance of writs, directions or orders in the nature of habeas corpus on the ground that the orders for their detention and their continued detention in terms of those orders are in violation of Article 22(5) of the constitution and the different provisions of COFEPOSA Act. The detention orders are also sought to be quashed.

2. Adv. S. Palanikumar appearing on behalf of the petitioners in these cases, Adv. Govindu P. Renuka, the Central Government Counsel appearing for Union of India which is the second respondent and Adv. P.K. Babu, the Senior Government Pleader appearing for the State of Kerala and the Superintendent of the Central Prison, Thiruvananthapuram, who are respondents 1 and 3 in these writ petitions, submitted that these matters could be heard together in view of the fact that the contentions of facts and in law are fundamentally similar in these cases and because the grou