TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1978 (5) TMI 117
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....osed the following material against the detenu: on receipt of certain information on December 12, 1977 by the Customs officers of Ahmedabad, the said officers had kept a watch for a Fiat Car No. GTI-6020 and the said car with five occupants was intercepted in the early hours of December 13, 1977 near Naroda Railway Crossing and the occupants (the detenu and four others) were taken to the Customs Divisional Office, Paldi, Ahmedabad for examination. The detenu and the other four occupants of the car denied that they were carrying any smuggled gold or prohibited articles, but on search of one of the occupants Sheveram Atmaram Chandwani two cloth bags were recovered D, from him, in one of which there were 27 gold bars of foreign marking weighing 19 tolas valued at Rs. 2,16,00 and in the other there were 18 pieces of gold bearing 'Trishul' mark valued at Rs. 1,94,400/-. Chandwani in his statement before the Customs officers stated that the two bags which he was carrying on his person belonged to the detenu who was dealing in Silver and Gold in Udaipur and that he was merely a carrier who used to receive remuneration of Rs. 100/- per trip from the detenu. Two statements of the detenu wer....
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....rrogation of the detenu but her request was not acceded to as the Customs Officers were of the view that there was no provision in law permitting an Advocate to remain present at the time of interrogation. Further on this occasion the Advocate was told that the detenu will be produced before the Magistrate at 5.30 p.m. On that very day and, therefore, she waited in the Magistrate's Court upto 5.30 p.m. to obtain bail for the detenu but as the detenu was not produced the Magistrate declined to pass any order on the bail application. On December 15, 1977 the detenu was produced before the Magistrate who remanded him to Customs custody for five days in spite of opposition by the Advocate. On December 20, 1977 the detenu was again produced before the Magistrate and even on this occasion bail was refused but the detenu was remanded to judicial custody permitting further interrogation by Customs Officers. On December 22, 1977 while he was in judicial custody the detenu was interrogated by Customs officers and his statement was recorded on that day but the detenu refused to sign the same and instead made an endorsement that his earlier statements dated December 13 and 14, 1977 and the fac....
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.... Court had clearly erred in taking the view that since the contents of the telegram dated December 14, 1977 expressing the apprehension had been made known to the detaining authority it could not be said that this material aspect of the case had been kept back from the detaining authority. It was pointed out that the mere expression of an apprehension that confessional statements might be extorted was different from the actual obtaining of the statements under pressure of which a complaint had been made by the detenu in his statement recorded on December 22, 1977 wherein the earlier statements had been completely retracted and it was urged that the fact that there was such retraction of the confessional statements by the detenu at the first available opportunity was not communicated or placed before the detaining authority when it considered the question of passing the impugned order. Counsel further contended that instead of considering whether these facts were vital enough to require the application of mind by the detaining authority, the High Court went on to record findings of fact, to the effect (i) that it could not be said that the detenu was in illegal custody: (ii) that th....
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....detain the petitioner with a view to preventing him from acting in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community and his subjective satisfaction, according to the ground of detention furnished to the petitioner, was founded on a solitary incident of theft of aluminium wire alleged to have been committed by the petitioner on April 14, 1973. In respect of this incident of theft a criminal case was filed inter alia against the petitioner in the Court of the Sub Divisional Magistrate Asansol, but the criminal case was ultimately dropped as witnesses were not willing to come forward to give evidence for fear of danger W their life and the petitioner was discharged. It appeared clear on record that the history-sheet of the petitioner which was before the District Magistrate when he made the order of detention did not make any reference to the criminal case launched against tho petitioner, much less to the fact that the prosecution had been dropped or the date when the petitioner was discharged from that case. ID connection with this aspect this Court observed as follows: "We should....
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....hat in spite of intimation to the Advocate in that behalf the detenu was not produced before the Magistrate on December 14, 1977 and (iii) that the confessional statements were squarely retracted by the detenu on December 22, 1977 at the first available opportunity while he was in judicial custody; the first two had a bearing on the question whether the confessional statements had been extorted under duress from the detenu or not, while the third obviously was in relation to the confessional statements which formed the main foundation of the impugned order and such were vital facts having & bearing on the main issue before the detaining authority. As regards the first this Court in Nandini Satpathy's ([978] 2 S.C.C.424) case has observed in para 63 of the judgment thus: "Lawyer's presence is a constitutional claim in some circumstances in our country also, and, in the context of Article 20(3), is an assurance of awareness and observance of the right to silence. The Miranda decision has insisted that if an accused person asks for lawyer's assistance, at the stage of interrogation, it shall be granted before commencing or continuing with the questioning. We think that Article 20(3) ....