Judgment

K. JAYACHANDRA REDDY, J.- The petitioner, who is himself the detenu, was detained under the provisions of The Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Forest-Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum Grabbers Act, 1982 (Tamil Nadu Act for short). He challenged the detention order before the High Court by filing a writ of habeas corpus and the same was dismissed. Questioning the same, he has filed SLP (Crl.) No. 2685 of 1993 in this Court. He has also filed Writ Petition (Crl.) No. 364 of 1993 under Article 32 of the Constitution in this Court and both are being disposed of together by a common judgment.

2. The petitioner is a resident of Madras city. On February 16, 1993 he was detained under Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Act in order to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, by an order passed by the Commissioner of Police, Madras. The grounds of detention in support of the order were served on the petitioner in jail on February 20, 1993. In both these petitions, common grounds challenging the detention have been advanced. Before we proceed to consider the same, it is necessary t