Rameshwar Shaw vs District Magistrate, Burdwan & Anr on 11 September, 1963
In Dharmendra
Suganchand Chelawat & anr. V. Union of India, AIR 1990 SC 1196, the
Supreme Court, while considering the same issue has reconsidered its
earlier judgments on the point in Rameshwar Shaw v. District Magistrate,
3 WP(Crl) No. 141/2021
Burdwan, AIR 1964 SC 334; Masood Alam v. Union of India, AIR 1973
SC 897; Dulal Roy v. District Magistrate, Burdwan, AIR 1975 SC 1508;
Alijan Mian v. District Magistrate, Dhanbad, AIR 1983 SC 1130;
Ramesh Yadav v. District Magistrate, Etah, AIR 1986 SC 315; Suraj Pal
Sahu v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1986 SC 2177; Binod Singh v.
District Magistrate, Dhanbad, AIR 1986 SC 2090; Smt Shashi Aggarwal
v. State of U.P., AIR 1988 SC 596, and came to the conclusion that an
order for detention can be passed against a person in custody and for that
purpose, it is necessary that grounds of detention must show that (i)
detaining authority was aware of the fact that detenu is already in
detention; and (ii) there were compelling reasons justifying such detention
despite the fact that detenu is already in detention. The expression
"compelling reasons" in the context of making an order for detention of a
person already in custody implies that there must be cogent material
before detaining authority on the basis whereof it may be satisfied that (a)
detenu is likely to be released from custody in near future, and (b) taking
into account the nature of antecedent activities of detenu, it is likely that
after his release from custody he would indulge in prejudicial activities
and it is necessary to detain him in order to prevent him from engaging in
such activities.