The supply of illegible photocopies of documents with a detention order violates the detenu's fundamental right to make an effective representation against the order and renders the detention void ab initio.

( 1 ) THE Petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution is directed against the order dt. 20th May, 1985 (Annexure-2) passed by the State Government under S. 3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (for short the Act) under which the petitioner has been detained on the grounds contained in annexure-2.

( 2 ) ANNEXURES Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, which form part of the grounds, were also supplied to the petitioner on 10th June, 1985 when the order was served upon him.

( 3 ) A representation was made by the petitioner against the above order of detention but it was rejected by the State Government.

( 4 ) THE grounds of detention recite that on 17th Jan. 1985 the custom authorities had interrogated Sri Anil Kumar Gupta in their Office and on a search of his person, 2350 U. S. Dollars, 2000 Saudi Arabian Rial and an amount of Rs. 7610/- were recovered and a recovery memo was prepared. Sri Anil Kumar Gupta in his statement gave out that he used to smuggle gold from Nepal and sell it to the petitioner. On 16-1-1985 at about 8. 00 a. m. he had brought gold rings weighing 25 tolas and had sold them through the agency of the petitioner and his son for a sum of Rs. 55,000/ -. The petitioners residential premises was searched by the customs authorities on 18-1-85 where a "jacket" was recovered. Sri Anil Kumar Gupta had stated that he had stayed at the petitioners house and there he had left back his jacket of light green colour. The petitioner is said to have admitted in his statement recorded on 18-1-85 by the customs authorities that Anil Kumar Gupta used to stay at his house.

( 5 ) IT was on the basis of these grounds that the State Government felt satisfied that petitioners detention under the Act was necessary and consequently the impugned order was passed on 20th May, 1985.

( 6 ) THE petitioner in this petition has inter alia, contended in para 9 of the petition as under :-"9. That the most alarming feature of the grounds and the supporting material supplied along with it is that all the documents contained in Annexures 3 to 7 are photo copies and the same are illegible and it is not at all possible to decipher the text of the documents and as such it is not possible to give an effective representation against the order of detention. On this ground alone the aforesaid Writ Petition is fit to be allowed and the petitioner is set at liberty forthwith. "

( 7 ) THIS para of the petition has been replied in para 9 of the counter-affidavit in which it has been stated as under :"9. That in reply to paras 8 and 9 of the petition it is stated that the photo copies of the documents and relevant material were handed over to the petitioner on 10-6-85 and the same were legible as is evident from the fact that the names of panchas in the panchnama dt. 17-1-85 have been got correctly typed by the petitioner in the annexure filed by him. The said annexure is annexure-7 to the writ petition. The petitioner has further preferred a representation in English to the State Government and in that he never pointed out that he cannot read or write English. In the presentation submitted by the petitioner the petitioner has signed the same in English. "

( 8 ) THE fact that some of the documents, which were annexed with the grounds, were illegible and it was not possible to decipher the text of the documents, has not been denied in the counter-affidavit, but the learned Deputy Government Advocate has contended that the question that the documents accompanying the grounds were not legible was not raised by the petitioner in his representation made before the State Government against the order of detention and, therefore, he should not be allowed to raise that question in the present petition.

( 9 ) WE are not prepared to accept the contention.

( 10 ) UNDER Art. 22 (5) a detenu has the fundamental rights : - (1) of being informed of the grounds on which the order of detention has been made, and; (2)