1980 (1) TMI 201

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..... sentation on the 27th September, 1979 to the Govt. who received it on the 28th September, 1979. In support of the Rule Mr. A. K. Sen has raised a number of points, but in view of one of them which is to the effect that there has been an inordinate and unexplained delay on the part of the detaining authority in deciding the representation and that the detention is therefore vitiated, we need not go into the other points. On the question of delay the petitioner had expressly taken a plea in para 11 of the petition but in their reply the respondents have not at all explained or detailed any reason why there was inordinate delay in disposing of the representation submitted by the detenu to the detaining authority. The admitted position is that .....

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..... t from its obligation to constitute a Board and to send the representation to it. The detaining authority is not entitled to wait for the opinion of the Board but has to take its decision without the least possible delay. In Writ Petition No. 246 of 1969 decided on September 10, 1969 this Court observed as follows: It is implicit in the language of Art. 22 that the appropriate Government, while discharging its duty to consider the representation, cannot depend upon the views of the Board on such representation. It has to consider the representation on its own without being influenced by any such view of the Board. There was, therefore, no reason for the Government to wait for considering the petitioner s representation until it had rece .....

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..... e Intelligence whose comments were received on 16-10-79. Thereafter there was absolutely no justification for any delay in taking a decision on the merit of the representation. Even if we assume that there was some reasonable explanation for the delay from 28th September, 1979 to 16th Octo- ber, 1979, there appears to be no good explanation whatsoever for the delay from 16th October, 1979 to 2nd November, 1979 when the representation was rejected by the Government. It is manifest that the Government was not obliged to wait for the decision of the Board because it had to consider the representation independently of what the Board might say. In this view of the matter, we are satisfied that there has been unreasonable delay in deciding the .....

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