Preventive detention and forfeiture fail where relied upon documents are not supplied, defeating effective representation.

Preventive detention was held invalid where copies of documents referred to and relied upon in the grounds of detention were not supplied to the detenu, because effective representation requires access to the material forming the basis of subjective satisfaction. An explanation for non-supply could not replace the documents themselves. As a valid detention order was a condition precedent for action under the forfeiture statute, the invalidity of the detention order also rendered the downstream notice and forfeiture proceedings unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the preventive detention order was vitiated by non-supply of copies of documents referred to and relied upon in the grounds of detention, and whether the consequential proceedings under the forfeiture law could survive.

Analysis: The detention law required that a detenu be furnished with the material relied upon so that an effective representation against detention could be made. The record showed that the documents referred to in the grounds of detention and relied upon for reaching subjective satisfaction were not supplied to the detenu. The Court treated those documents as material and held that the explanation for non-supply could not substitute for the documents themselves. Since a valid detention order was a condition precedent for action under the forfeiture statute, the invalidity of the detention order necessarily affected the downstream notice and forfeiture order.

Conclusion: The non-supply of relied upon documents vitiated the detention order, and the consequential forfeiture proceedings were unsustainable; the challenge failed for the appellant and succeeded for the respondent.

Ratio Decidendi: Failure to furnish copies of documents referred to and relied upon in a preventive detention order deprives the detenu of an effective opportunity to represent and renders the detention invalid, with consequential proceedings based on that detention also failing.

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