Jammu & Kashmir High Court - Srinagar Bench
Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat vs State Of J&K; & Ors. on 26 December, 2018
Author: Rashid Ali Dar
Bench: Rashid Ali Dar
Serial No.2
Regular List
HIGH COURT OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR
AT SRINAGAR
HCP No.185/2018
Date of Decision:26.12.2018
Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat vs. State of J&K and anr.
Coram:
Hon'ble Mr Justice Rashid Ali Dar, Judge.
Appearance:
For the Petitioner(s): Mr. Mir Shafaqat Hussain, Adv.
For the Respondent(s): Mr. Asif Bhat, AAG.
i) Whether approved for reporting in Yes/No
Law journals etc.:
ii) Whether approved for publication
in press: Yes/No
1. In pursuance to order No.DMS/PSA/11/2018 dated 07.07.2018, passed by District Magistrate, Srinagar, in exercise of powers vested in him under Section 8 of the J&K Public Safety Act, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat (hereinafter referred to as the detenue), has been taken into preventive custody as his activities were noticed to be prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. By the instant petition veracity of the said order is assailed on the grounds enumerated in the petition.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the detenue has been disabled from making an effective representation against his detention as the material, which formed base of the grounds of detention and consequent order of detention, has not been furnished to the detenue.
3. Perusal of the detention records reveals that the submission has weight. Detention records shows that only copy of detention warrant and copy of grounds of HCP No.185/2018 Page 1 of 11 detention (04 leaves) have been provided to the detenue while executing the detention warrant. In the grounds of detention, reference of criminal cases having been registered against the detenue has been made. However, the record has do not suggest that the copies of aforementioned FIRs, statements recorded under Section 161 Cr. P. C and other material collected in connection therewith were ever supplied to the detenue. It needs no emphasis that the detenue cannot be expected to make a meaningful exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India unless and until the material on which the detention is based, is supplied to the detenue. The failure on the part of detaining authority to supply material renders detention order illegal and unsustainable. Furnishing only the copy of grounds of detention would not absolve the detaining authority from furnishing the material forming base of the grounds of detention as it is the material which would enable the detenue to make an effective representation against the detention. Non-supply of the material would amount to violation of Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India, so deprivation of a valuable right.
4. The Hon'ble Apex Court in the judgment rendered in the case of "Sophia Gulam Mohd. Bham v. State of Maharashtra & ors" (AIR 1999 SC 3051), has held as under:
"The right to be communicated the grounds of detention flows from Article 22(5) while the right to be supplied all the material on which the grounds are based flows from the right given to the detenue to make a representation against the order of detention. A representation can be made and the order of detention can be assailed only when all the grounds on which the order is based are communicated to the detenue and the material on which those grounds are based are also disclosed and copies thereof are supplied to the person detained, in his own language."HCP No.185/2018 Page 2 of 11
5. In paras 27 and 28 of the judgment captioned Thahira Haris etc. etc. Vs. Government of Karnataka &Ors, reported in AIR 2009 Supreme Court 2184, Hon'ble Apex Court has held as under:
"27. There were several grounds on which the detention of the detenue was challenged in these appeals but it is not necessary to refer to all the grounds since on the ground of not supplying the relied upon document, continued detention of the detenue becomes illegal and detention order has to be quashed on that ground alone.
28. Our Constitution provides adequate safeguards under clauses (5) and (6) of Article 22 to the detenue who has been detained in pursuance of the order made under any law providing for preventive detention. He has right to be supplied copies of all documents, statements and other materials relied upon in the grounds of detention without any delay. The predominant object of communicating the grounds of detention is to enable the detenue at the earliest opportunity to make effective and meaningful representation against his detention.
6. It is also quite apposite to quote para 10 of the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in "Ibrahim Ahmad Bhatti alias Mohd. Akhtar Hussain alias Kandar Ahmad Wagher alias Iqbal alias Gulam Vs. State of Gujarat and others", (1982) 3 SCC 440:
"10. Two propositions having a bearing on the points at issue in the case before us, clearly merge from the aforesaid resume of decided cases : (a) all documents, statements and other materials incorporated in the grounds by reference and which have influenced the mind of the detaining authority in arriving at the requisite subjective satisfaction must be furnished to the detenu along with the grounds or in any event not later than five days ordinarily and in the exceptional circumstances and for reasons to be recorded in writing not later than 15 days from the date of his detention and (b) all such material must be furnished to him in a script or language which he understands and failure to do either of the two things would amount to a breach of the two duties cast on the detaining authority under Article 22 (5) of the Constitution. Relying upon this legal position counsel for the petitioner urged before us that in the instant case a breach of the mandate contained in Article 22 (5) read with Section 3 (3) of the COFEPOSA is clearly involved HCP No.185/2018 Page 3 of 11 because of three things that have happened, namely, (i) supply of Urdu translations of the bulk of documents and statements incorporated in the grounds and relied upon by the detaining authority was delayed beyond the normal period of 5 days without any exceptional circumstances obtaining in the matter, (ii) the alleged exceptional circumstances purporting to justify the delay and the fact that the reasons had been recorded in writing were not communicated to the detenu which has prevented him from making effective representation against his continued detention and (iii) Urdu translations of quite a few documents and statements incorporated in the grounds and relied upon by the detaining authority have not been supplied to him at all. As regards the first two aspects counsel relied upon two decisions of the Patna High Court, namely, Bishwa Mohan Kumar Sinha v. State of Bihar and Ors.(1) and Bishwanath Prasad Keshari v. State of Bihar & Ors.(2) where the Patna High Court has taken the view that not merely should the exceptional circumstances exist justifying the delayed supply of the grounds of detention but these should be communicated to the detenu to enable him to make an effective representation. Counsel urged that because of the aforesaid failure the continued detention of the petitioner must be held to be illegal.
We find considerable force in these submissions made by the counsel for the petitioner."
7. Next it is contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the detenue has also been disabled from making an effective representation by not supplying him the translated copies of the ground of detention which are in English language besides being in a hyper technical language which the detenue is not in a position to understand being illiterate.
8. The records, as produced by the learned counsel for the respondents, do not suggest that the translated copies of grounds of detention have been supplied to the detenue, therefore, infringement of right guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution though a passing reference has been made by saying that the grounds of detention have been read over and explained to the detenue. The service of the grounds of detention on the detenue is a very precious constitutional right and the object behind the same is to enable the detenue to file an effective representation. It will be an empty formality to supply the grounds of detention to the detenue unless HCP No.185/2018 Page 4 of 11 he is in a position to understand the same. In my view I am fortified by the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case "Chaju Ram Vs. The State of Jammu & Kashmir" reported in AIR 1971 SC 263. Following portion from para 9 of the judgment shall be quite apposite to be quoted:
"....... The detenu is an illiterate person and it is absolutely necessary that when we are dealing with a detenu who cannot read or understand English language or any language at all that the grounds of detention should be explained to him as early as possible in the language he understands so that he can avail himself of the statutory right of making a representation. To hand over to him the document written in English and to obtain his thumb impression on it in token of his having received the same does not comply with the requirements of the law which gives a very valuable right to the detenue to make a representation which right is frustrated by handling over to him the grounds of detention in an alien language. We are therefore compelled to hold in this case that the requirement of explaining the grounds to the detenu in his own language was not complied with."
9. Para 13 of the judgment in Ibrahim Ahmad Batti's case (supra) shall also be quite apposite to be reproduced herein:
"Lastly, Urdu translations of quite a few documents and statements referred to in the grounds of detention and relied upon by the detaining authority were admittedly not supplied to the detenu at all and the only explanation given by the counsel for the respondents at the hearing has been that most of these documents (Urdu translations whereof were not supplied) comprised statements of accounts which had figures in English with some English words written in capital letters and some documents were in Hindi and Gujarati and the record (statements of Rekha, her sister Indi and one Jayantilal Soni, all co-conspirators of the detenu, recorded during the investigation) clearly shows that the petitioner knows English figures, understands English words written in capital letters and can also converse or talk in Hindi and Gujarati and as such the non- supply of Urdu translations of these documents cannot be said to have caused any prejudice to the petitioner in the HCP No.185/2018 Page 5 of 11 matter of making a representation against his detention. In our view, the explanation is hardly satisfactory and cannot condone the non-supply of Urdu translations of these documents. Admittedly, the petitioner is a Pakistani national and Urdu seems to be his mother tongue and a little knowledge of English figures, ability to read English words written in capital letters and a smattering knowledge of Hindi or Gujarati would not justify the denial of Urdu translations to him of the material documents and statements referred to as incriminating documents in the grounds and relied upon by the detaining authority in arriving at its subjective satisfaction. In fact, the claim made before us on behalf of the detenu that he only knows Urdu cannot be brushed aside as false especially in view of the fact that the same was accepted on the earlier occasion by the Advisory Board who had actually opined that failure to supply Urdu translations of grounds of detention and documents had vitiated the earlier order of detention and following this opinion respondent No. 1 had revoked the said order. Moreover, with the assistance of counsel on either side we have ourselves gone through many of these documents and statements and it is not possible to say that most of them are merely statements of account containing figures in English with English words written in capital letters. These documents recovered from three flats in three different societies, include, for instance, documents like bills and vouchers showing purchases made from some shops, while a large number of documents are in Hindi and Gujarati and relate to transactions in contraband articles like gold, silver, watches, etc., and comprise accounts of such transactions, the figures as well as recitals pertaining to which are entirely in Gujarati. All these, in our view, are material documents which have obviously influenced the mind of the detaining authority in arriving at its subjective satisfaction and these are all in a script or language not understood by detenu, and, therefore, the non-supply of Urdu translations of these documents has clearly prejudiced the petitioner in the exercise of his right to make an effective representation against his detention and hence the safeguard contained in Article 22(5) is clearly violated."
10. It shall also be quite apposite to quote following portions from paras 3 and 5 of the judgment rendered by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case captioned "Smt. Raziya Umar Bakshi Vs. Union of India" (AIR 1980 SC 1751):
HCP No.185/2018 Page 6 of 11"3.........The service of the grounds of detention on the detenue is a very precious constitutional right and where the grounds are couched in a language which is not known to the detenu, unless the contents of the grounds are fully explained and translated to the detenu, it will tantamount to not serving the grounds of detention to the detenu and would thus vitiate the detention ex-facie."
5........in case where the detaining authority is satisfied that the grounds are couched in a language which is not known to the detenu, it must see to it that the grounds are explained to the detenue, a translated script is given to him and the grounds bear some sort of a certificate to show that the grounds have been explained to the detenue in the language he understands."
11. In "Powanammal Vs. State of T. N. and another" reported in (1999) 2 SCC 413, Hon'ble Supreme Court has observed as under:
".......The amplitude of the safeguard embodied in Article 22(5) extends not merely to oral explanation of the grounds of detention and the material in support thereof in the language understood by the detenu but also to supplying their translation in script or language which is understandable to the detenu. Failure to do so would amount to denial of the right of being communicated the grounds and of being afforded the opportunity of making a representation against the order."
12. The detention record produced by the learned counsel for the respondents contains a copy of "Receipt of grounds of detention" perusal of which shows that the grounds of detention have been read over to the detenue by one ASI Mohd Sadiq but no affidavit in support thereof has been filed which was required to be sworn by the said officer. Looking at the said ground from yet another angle, what can be said is that to eradicate all the doubts, it was incumbent on the part of the person, who did the exercise of handing over the documents and conveying the contents thereof to the detenue, to file an affidavit in order to attach a semblance of fairness to his actions. Resort can, in this behalf, be had to the law laid down by the Apex Court of HCP No.185/2018 Page 7 of 11 the country in the case of "State Legal Aid Committee, J&K Vs. State of J&K & others", reported in AIR 2005 SC 1270, wherein it has been held as under:
"Though several questions have been raised in this petition, it is not necessary to deal with them in detail as we find that there is no definite material to show that the requirements of Section
13 of the Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978, (in short the Act), requiring the grounds of order of detention to be disclosed/ communicated to the person affected by the order has been complied with. Though in the affidavit filed by the State, it has been stated that the contents of the warrants and grounds of detention were served, read over and explained to the assesse and he was informed about his right to make a representation against the detention, if he so desired, there is no material placed on record to substantiate this stand. It is stated in the affidavit that the detenue refused to receive copy of the detention order and also refused to put his signatures on the documents. The least the State could have done is to file an affidavit of the person who wanted to serve the relevant documents and an endorsement LPA (HC) 107/2017 10 of 16 to the effect that there was refusal. Even the name of the official has not been indicated in the affidavit. That would have been sufficient to comply with the requirements of Section 13 of the Act."
13. Para 5 of the judgment rendered in the case of "Mohammad Shaban Chopan Vs. State and another" reported in 2003(II) 455 shall be advantageous to be quoted here-under:-
"5. Thus the stand taken by the detaining authority is that ASI Gh. Ahmad explained the grounds of detention to the detenue in Urdu and Kashmiri. However, affidavit of said ASI has not been filed. I have perused the record made available by Learned Counsel for the respondents. In the record there is a photocopy of C/Certificate of said ASI to that effect when the Learned Counsel was asked to produce the original, he expressed his inability to do so. The un-authenticated photocopy does not deserve to be noticed. Therefore, neither there is affidavit of said ASI nor any reliable document available on record to substantiate the fact that ASI Ghulam Ahmad had actually explained the grounds of detention to the detenue in his own language. Bare statement of the detaining authority in this behalf is of no consequence as has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the above quoted authority. The detention HCP No.185/2018 Page 8 of 11 order thus cannot be sustained being violative of mandate of law on the aforesaid ground alone."
14. Para 20 of judgment rendered in the case of "Lallubhai Jogibhai Patel vs Union Of India & Ors" reported in 1981 AIR 728 is advantageous to be quoted:
"20. It is an admitted position that the detenu does not know English. The grounds of detention, which were served on the detenu, have been drawn up in English. It is true that Shri C. L. Antali, Police Inspector, who served the grounds of detention on the detenu, has filed an affidavit stating that he had fully explained the grounds of detention in Gujarati to the detenu. But, that is not a sufficient compliance with the mandate of Article 22(5) of the Constitution, which requires that the grounds of detention must be "communicated" to the detenu. "Communicate" is a strong word. It means that sufficient knowledge of the basic facts constituting the 'grounds' should be imparted effectively and fully to the detenu in writing in a language which he understands. The whole purpose of communicating the 'ground' to the detenu is to enable him to make a purposeful and effective representation. If the 'grounds' are only verbally explained to the detenu and nothing in writing is left with him, in a language which he understands, then that purpose is not served, and the constitutional mandate in Article 22(5) is infringed. If any authority is needed on this point, which is so obvious from Article 22(5), reference may be made to the decisions of this Court in Harikishan v. State of Maharashtra: and Haribandhu Dass. v. District Magistrate (AIR 1969 SC 43) (ibid)."
15. Preventive laws have the effect of depriving a person of his liberty which is precious, however, deprivation thereof at times becomes indispensable. For justifying such deprivation, the safeguards as are provided by law are also required to be respected. A person who dares to threaten maintenance of public order has to be dealt with iron hand but the Constitutional safeguards as are available are also to be followed. The Article 21 of the constitution of India has protected the life and personal liberty of people by providing that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law. The word established is used in Article 21 in order to denote and ensure that the procedure prescribed by law must be defined with certainty in order that those who are deprived HCP No.185/2018 Page 9 of 11 of their fundamental right to life or liberty must know the precise extent of such deprivation. If a person is to be deprived of his life or liberty, the authority concerned is under a constitutional mandate to follow the procedure established by law, the procedure prescribed for depriving a person of his life or liberty has to be reasonable, fair and just. The protection contained in the article does not extend to only citizens but to all persons. The law providing for preventive detention has to be strictly construed keeping in view the delicate balance between social security and citizen freedom. Thus if the preventive detention has not been ordered in strict conformity with law authorizing detention, the detenue is entitled to be released.
16. Preventive detention, in effect, is an invasion to personal liberty which infringe the right to liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Preventive detention, in view of exception to Article 21, has to be reasonable, shall not be on the ipse dixit of the detaining authority. Preventive detention wherever permissible shall adhere to the procedural safeguards. Infraction of safeguards renders the order of detention unsustainable. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in catena of judgments has made it clear as to what is the value of the 'constitutional safeguard' and as to what is the value of right to liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In my view, I am fortified by the judgment rendered by a Bench of three Hon'ble Judges of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case captioned "Rekha Vs. State of Tamil Nadu and anr", reported in (2011) 5 SCC 244.
17. In view of the facts of the present case and the law laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court as quoted hereinabove, the order of detention impugned does not sustain on aforesaid ground alone, therefore, other grounds projected in the petition are not required to be dealt with.
18. Taking conspectus of the above discussion, the petition is allowed and the impugned detention order bearing No.DMS/PSA/11/2018 dated 07.07.2018, passed by District Magistrate, Srinagar, being unsustainable, is quashed. Detenue is directed HCP No.185/2018 Page 10 of 11 to be set free from the preventive custody forthwith provided his is not required in connection with any other case.
19. Detention record be returned to the learned counsel for the respondents.
(Rashid Ali Dar) Judge Srinagar 26.12.2018 "Bhat Altaf, PS"
HCP No.185/2018 Page 11 of 11