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2020 (9) TMI 697 - DELHI HIGH COURTDetention Orders at the pre-execution stage - Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA Act) - HELD THAT:- Proposals for invoking the provisions of the COFEPOSA Act were mooted in the second week of October 2019 - overseas evidence was received from SPA Dubai in the first week of November 2019. The proposal to detain the petitioners was further analysed keeping in view the strong tendency to indulge in smuggling activities in future. The proposal for preventive detention of the petitioners was sent to the Detaining Authority on 02.01.2020. The proposal was placed before the Central Screening Committee on 13.01.2020, and the recommendations of the Central Screening Committee (CSC) were submitted to the Detaining Authority on 14.01.2020. The proposals were examined by the Detaining Authority, and after arriving at his subjective satisfaction, the Detaining Authority passed the Detention Orders dated 21.01.2020. Aforesaid satisfactorily explains and justifies the time consumed in mooting the proposal for detention of the petitioners under the COFEPOSA Act and for consideration of the said proposal, firstly, by the Central Screening Committee, and thereafter, by the Detaining Authority. The time lapse, in our view, is not such as to lead to the inference that the live-link between the prejudicial activity of the petitioners, which was discovered in April 2019, and the object of detention, namely, to prevent them from indulging in such prejudicial activity, stood snapped. Pertinently, it is not the case of either of these petitioners that they have discontinued their ostensible business of dealing in gold and gold jewellery - observations in Muneesh Suneja [2001 (1) TMI 903 - SUPREME COURT] is attracted in the facts of these cases. We also agree with the submission of Mr. Mahajan that petitioners” reliance on Rajinder Arora [2006 (3) TMI 173 - SUPREME COURT is misplaced for the reasons advanced by Mr. Mahajan and recorded hereinabove. Therefore, we reject this submission of Mr. Chaudhri. Whether the petitioners absconded and, if so, whether they are precluded from assailing the Detention Orders in respect of each of them on that account? - We are of the view that there is no merit in the petitioners” submissions that neither of the three petitioners was not absconding. Abscondence is not only a matter of physical disappearance, but also carries with it the intent to hide, disappear, or evade the concerned person, or authority. A Detention Order would lose its force and object, if it were to be served upon the representative, or counsel, as the element of surprise would be lost – which is crucial to be able to detain a person, as there is every likelihood of the person absconding, or evading execution of the Detention Order the moment he learns that such an order had been passed. The respondents are not obliged to serve the Detention Order, the Grounds of Detention, or the Relied Upon Documents on a third party. If this submission of the petitioner MNK were to be accepted, it would render the law of preventive detention completely ineffective and not workable. The petitioner MNK, however, failed to provide his actual address where he could be served the Detention Order. If the petitioner MNK was not to be found at his ancestral address, there was no point of furnishing the same. Thus, we are satisfied that the petitioner MNK deliberately absconded to evade the service of the Detention Order. So far as the petitioner APS is concerned, we find that the position is no different. The reason given by the petitioner APS for his not being found at his given address is completely belied by the reports submitted by the DCP, West District, New Delhi. We find it very hard to believe that neither the petitioner APS”s wife, nor his father was aware of his whereabouts. Clearly, APS was in hiding and his wife and his father also feigned ignorance, which would be the case only if the petitioner APS were to instruct them not to disclose his whereabouts. We are, therefore, of the view that the petitioner APS is equally guilty of abscondence. Petitioner Gopal Gupta - he was not found at his given address. His wife/ Smita was found at the said address who stated that the petitioner Gopal Gupta had gone somewhere in South India for his medical treatment and she did not have any knowledge about the exact whereabouts, and the date of arrival of her husband. This again, we find to be rather unusual that a wife would not know where her husband has gone and would not even know when he would arrive. In today”s day and age – when mobile communication is common place, we find the statement made by the petitioner Gopal Gupta”s wife Smt. Smita to be unacceptable and clearly the idea was to suppress the information with regard to the whereabouts of Gopal Gupta. The stand now taken by the petitioner Gopal Gupta – that he was at his father”s residence, is completely contradicted with the statement of his wife Smita. We find that, firstly, the petitioners are not entitled to maintain these petitions in view of their conduct of abscondence and in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Subhash Popatlal Dave [2013 (8) TMI 8 - SUPREME COURT]and even otherwise, we do not find any merit in any of the grounds taken by the petitioners to assail the Detention Orders issued in respect of each of them under Section 3 of the COFEPOSA Act at the pre-execution/ detention stage.
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