Judgement

CHANDRACHUD, J.:- This is a group of three writ petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution.

2. D.Bhuvan Mohan Patnaik, the petitioner in Writ Petition No.295 of 1974 is undergoing the sentences of 4 1/2 years and 5 1/2 years awarded to him in two sessions cases. He is also an undertrial prisoner in what is known as the Parvatipuram Naxalite Conspiracy Case. Nagabhushan Patnaik, who is the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 296 of 1974 was sentenced to death by the learned II Additional Sessions Judge, Vishkhapatnam, but that sentence was commuted by the President to life imprisonment. P. Hussainar, the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 297 of 1974, is undergoing the sentence of imprisonment for life imposed by the same learned Judge. He is also an under-trial prisoner in the Parvatipuram Case. The three petitioners are undergoing the sentences in the Central Jail at Visakhapatnam.

3. We are not concerned with any evaluation of the politcal beliefs of the petitioners who claim to be naxalites nor with the legality of the sentences imposed on them nor indeed with the charges on which two of them are being tried. The only reliefs which they ask for are : (1) that the armed polic