ORDER :

P.N. Prakash, J.

(Prayer: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying to issue a WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS directing the respondents to grant ordinary leave for one month to the detenu, Shabeer, S/o. Anwar Basha, aged about 36 years, convict No.10125 at Central Prison, Coimbatore.)

1. The petitioners in these cases are the relatives of convict prisoners/convict prisoners themselves undergoing various terms of imprisonment in the prisons that fall within the territorial jurisdiction of the Principal Seat of this Court at Madras. The petitioners seek writs of habeas corpus for the grant of ordinary leave to such convict prisoners. In view of the commonality of the issues involved and the reliefs sought, these petitions are decided by this common order.

2 At the outset, it is not in dispute that none of these cases relates to any complaint of unlawful detention which is the sine qua non for maintaining a petition for habeas corpus under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The celebrated writ of habeas corpus, alluded to as the “great constitutional privilege” and “the first security of civil liberty”, is a swift and effective remedy against illegal det