Preventive detention and supply of relied-upon documents: non-furnishing material facts can vitiate the detention order.

In preventive detention, material documents forming part of the basic facts relied upon in the grounds of detention must be supplied to the detenu so that an effective representation can be made under Article 22(5). Where the detention is based not only on the seizure at the airport but also on diaries, loose sheets, and connected documents recovered from searched premises, those documents are integral to the grounds if they were used to infer the detenu's link with the alleged smuggling network. A bare claim that they were not relied upon cannot stand when the grounds themselves show consideration of those materials. Non-supply of such documents vitiates the detention order.

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Issues: Whether non-supply of the material documents relied upon in the grounds of detention, though not furnished to the detenu, vitiated the preventive detention order for breach of Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: The detention was founded not merely on the intercepted seizure at the airport but also on diaries, loose sheets, and connected documents recovered from a searched premises, which were relied upon to infer the detenu's link with the alleged smuggling network and to characterise him as a carrier. Where such documents form part of the basic facts underlying the detention order, they are integral to the grounds of detention and must be supplied to enable an effective representation. A mere assertion that the documents were not relied upon cannot prevail where the detention grounds themselves show that they were taken into consideration. Failure to furnish them deprives the detenu of the constitutional opportunity to make an effective representation.

Conclusion: The non-supply of the relied upon documents violated Article 22(5) and rendered the detention order unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: In preventive detention matters, every material document that forms part of the basic facts relied upon to support the detention must be supplied to the detenu, and non-supply of such material vitiates the order for denial of the right to make an effective representation.

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