Urmila Naresh Mittal vs Union Of India And Ors. on 29 October, 1996
In Siraj Khan v. L. Himingliana reported in 1989 Cri. LJ 392 the Division Bench of Bombay High Court found that some handwitten documents were incomplete and illegible and unreadable and did not make out any sense. The Bombay High Court took the view that supply of illegible and unreadable documents amounted to non-supply of the said documents which violated Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India. The Division Bench of the Bombay High Court found that on the left side of the document there was an order passed by the Magistrate, releasing the detenu on certain conditions and that it was impossible to read the entire order. Some important words were completely missing. Argument was raised on behalf of the detaining authority that the order which was not readable dealt with the condition on which the bail was granted and since the detenu availed of the bail by complying with the conditions, there was no question of any prejudice to the detenu. This argument was repelled by the Bombay High Court by saying that it was no answer to the argument that the document was illegible and unreadable and it was held that it would amount to non-supply of the document.