1980 (2) TMI 255

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....7, 1979. Seventeen documents were mentioned in the accompanying letter. Alleging that one of the documents (item No. 14) was not sent, the Advocate wrote a letter by Registered post on December 17, 1979, asking for a copy of that document also. A reply was sent on January 1, 1980, to the effect that document No. 14 had also been supplied earlier but nonetheless another copy of the same document was being sent again. On December 22, 1979, the detenu made a representation to the detaining authority and it was actually received by the latter on December 26, 1979. The Home Department of the Delhi Administration forwarded a copy of the representation to the Customs authorities for their remarks. The remarks were received on January 4, 1980. Thereafter the representation was considered and rejected by the Administrator on January 15, 1980. The rejection of the representation was communicated to the detenu on January 17, 1980. In the meanwhile the Advisory Board to whom the detention of the petitioner had been referred met on January 4, 1980 and considered the matter. The detenu was produced before the Advisory Board and various concerned Departmental officials were also present. On Janua....

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....y this Court in Jayanarayan Sukul v. State of West Bengal,(1) and on the observations of the Court in Nareendra Purshotam Umrao etc. v. B. B. Gujaral & Ors.(2) and Ramchandra A. Kamat v. Union of India & Ors.(3). In the first case a Constitution bench of the Court laid down four broad principles to be followed in regard to representation of detenus : "First, the appropriate authority is bound to give an opportunity to the detenu to make a representation and to consider the representation of the detenu as early as possible. Secondly, the consideration of the representation of the detenu by the appropriate authority is entirely independent of any action by the Advisory Board including the consideration of the representation of the detenu by the Advisory Board. Thirdly, there should not be any delay in the matter of consideration. It is true that no hard and fast rule can be laid down as to the measure of time taken by the appropriate authority for consideration but it has to be remembered that the Government has to be vigilant in the governance of the citizens. A citizen's right raises a correlative duty of the State. Fourthly, the appropriate Government is to exercise its opinion a....

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....t to be provided with an opportunity to make a represntation. Here the Law Reports tell a story and teach a lesson. It is that the principal enemy of the detenu and his right to make a representation is neither high-handedness nor mean-mindedness but the casual indifference, the mindless in-sensibility, the routine and the red-tape of the bureaucratic machine. The four principles enunciated by the Court in Jayanarayan Sukul v. State of West Bengal (supra) as well as other principles enunciated in other cases, an analysis will show, are aimed at shielding personal freedom against indifference, insensibility, routine and red-tape and thus to secure to the detenu the right to make an effective representation. We agree : (1) the detaining authority must provide the detenu a very early opportunity to make a representation, (2) the detaining authority must consider the representation as soon as possible, and this, preferably, must be before the representation is forwarded to the Advisory Board, ( 3) the representation must be forwarded to the Advisory Board before the Board makes its report, and (4) the consideration by the detaining authority of the representation must be entirely ind....

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....he Advisory Board, the emphasis was not on the point of time but on the requirement that the Government should consider the representation independently of the Board. This was explained in Nagendra Nath Mondal v. the State of West Bengal(1). In Sukul's case (supra) the Court also made certain pertinent observations (at pages 231-232) : "No definite time can be laid down within which a representation of a detenu should be dealt with save and except that it is a constitutional right of a detenu to have his representation considered as expeditiously as possible. It will depend upon the facts and circumstances of each case whether the appropriate Government has disposed of the case as expeditiously as possible................." In Prabhakar Shankar Dhuri v. S. S. Pradhan(2) and Kantilal Bose v. State of West Bengal(3) delay of 16 days and 28 days respectively in disposing of the representation of the detenu was considered sufficient to vitiate the detention. On the other hand, in Nagendra Nath Mondal v. The State of West Bengal,(1) a delay of 34 days was held not to affect the validity of the detention as part of the delay was explained by the circumstance that the records of the cas....