In all the above eight Habeas Corpus Petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, common questions of law and facts are involved, hence they are disposed of by a common judgment. In all the petitions, the impugned detention orders dated 7-5-04 passed by the District Magistrate, Bulandshahar passed under Section 3 (2) of the National Security Act, 1980 have been challenged. The impugned detention orders have been passed on the basis of one and the same incident.

2. According to the F. I. R. , on 16/17. 04. 04 the petitioners named in the F. I. R. were apprehended by the police force consisting

of CO. , S. O. and Inspector-in-charge of P. S. Khurja amongst others, in the boundary of Yamin Pahalawan situate near Ganda Nala in the Nat Colony of Islamabad. The petitioners were found slaughtering cows at 12. 30 in the night. From the place of occurrence instruments of slaughtering as also 35 slaughtered cows, one ox, 7 calves and 6 cows in live condition were recovered. Motorcycles, cycles, cloths, shoes etc. were also recovered from the place of occurrence. On the challenge of the police party, the petitioners also fired upon the police force with an i