[1] This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ in the nature of habeas corpus directing the release of the petitioner who has been detained under Section 3 (1) (a) (ii) of the Preventive Detention Act, 1950, as amended from time to time.

[2] In order to appreciate the various points arising out of the impugned detention order a brief statement of the facts leading upto it are very necessary.

[3] The petitioner was the printer, publisher and editor of an Urdu daily known as 'Siyasat' in Kanpur. Sometime in May or June 1956 a literary and cultural institution of Bombay known as Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan republished a book entitled 'Religious Leaders'. This book had been written by two American authors and had been in circulation in a number of countries since 1941. There is no gainsaying that this book contains some highly objectionable and provocative passages about the character and dignity of the Prophet Mohammad which are likely to injure and hurt and in fact did injure and hurt the feelings of the Muslims including the petitioner. The petitioner, therefore, with the avowed intention of getting the said book proscribed started a very spirited propaganda in his daily the Siyasat, quoting objectionable passages from the said book, accompanied at times with his own articles and comments thereon and preceded by prominent head lines designed to catch the attention of the reading public. The first of such publications appeared in the Siyasat of 28th August 1956 and they were repeated almost without any break till 16-9-1956. The offending passages having meanwhile come to the knowledge of the Registrar of the aforesaid Bharitya Vidya Bhawan he issued a communication which was published in the Pioneer of 4th September, 1956, expressing his regrets for the publication of the said book and ordering its prompt withdrawal from circulation. Sri. K.M. Munshi the then Rajyapal of Uttar Pradesh and general editor of the said Bhawan also issued a communication which was published in the Pioneer dated 6th of September, 1956 expressing his regrets for the said publication and assuring everybody concerned that he himself had the highest respect for the Prophet of Islam and his teachings and that he had ordered the withdrawal of the said publication forthwith. All these expressions of regrets and assurances about the prompt withdrawal of they offending book from circulation did not however succeed in achieving the desired result, because, as we have said above, the petitioner continued with his writings till 16th of September, 1956. On the night of 16th September, 1956 the petitioner was arrested by the Sisaman police Kanpur for committing breach of an order promulgated under Section 144, Cr. P. C. and was remanded to jail custody by a first class Magistrate of Kanpur the following day. The petitioner applied unsuccessfully for bail both before the Magistrate as well as the Sessions Judge on 25th September and 5th October, 1956 respectively. An application for bail was then moved on his behalf in this Court but was alleged to have been withdrawn as he had been ordered to be detained under the Preventive Detention Act. Thereafter on 9th November, 1956 the police submitted a charge sheet against the petitioner under Sections 147, 353, 332, 356 and 188, I.P.C. before a first class Magistrate of Kanpur but his trial under those sections has been held up for one reason or the other which need not concern us in the present proceedings. The position, therefore, is that the petitioner is at the moment under detention both under the ordinary law as well as the Preventive Detention Act.

[4] In completing this narrative we have, we are afraid, gone a little beyond the date on which the petitioner was detained under the impugned detention order viz., 5th October, 1956. Three days later--i.., on 8th October, 1956--the petitioner was served with the statutory notice under Section 7 of the Preventive Detention Act, (Act