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2012 (2) TMI 496

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..... orty caused damage to the STD booth by damaging the glasses and chairs. Accordingly, an FIR being Crime No. 361 of 2011 was registered by the K.K. Nagar Police Station, Trichy. The complainant - Kaliyamoorthy had already lodged a complaint before the City Crime Branch, Trichy, on 07.02.2010, which was registered by the Police as Case Crime No. 3 of 2010 which is still pending. b) On 21.07.2011, respondent No.2 - Commissioner of Police passed a detention order against the detenu under Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982 (14 of 1982) while holding the detenu to be a `goonda' noticing his involvement in the case of 18.07.2011 as well as three past cases of the years 2008 and 2010. c) Against the said order of detention, the appellant sent a representation to the Detaining Authority on 25.07.2011 for revoking the detention order. He also made a representation to the State Government, which is the approving authority, against the said order. After receiving the representation of the appellant on 28.07.2011, t .....

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..... s a person, who either by himself or as a member of or leader of a gang, habitually commits, or attempts to commit or abets the commission of offences, punishable under section 153 or section 153-A under Chapter VIII or under Chapter XVI or Chapter XVII or Chapter XXII of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Central Act XLV of 1860) or punishable under section 3 or section 4 or section 5 of the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992 (Tamil Nadu Act 59 of 1992). The said Act was enacted by the State in the year 1982 and subsequently amended expanding the scope of the Act in order to prevent certain persons from dangerous activities which are prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. Since there is no dispute as to the power and execution, there is no need to refer other provisions. 8) We have carefully perused all the relevant materials and considered the rival submissions. 9) With regard to the first submission that no case is made out for preventive detention by invoking the provisions of T.N. Act 14 of 1982, though the ground case incident arose out of a land dispute between the detenu and the de facto complainant, however, the argument that it is .....

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..... narrating the details of the ground case and after adverting to earlier instances commencing from the years 2008 and 2010, the Detaining Authority has concluded as under:- Hence, I am satisfied that the accused Kajamalai Viji @ Vijay is habitually committing crimes and also acting in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of Public order and as such he is a Goonda as contemplated under Section 2(f) of the Tamil Nadu Act No. 14 of 1982. By committing the above described grave crime in a busy locality cum business area, he has created a feeling of insecurity in the minds of the people of the area in which the occurrence took place and thereby acted in a manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. 11) It is well settled that the court does not interfere with the subjective satisfaction reached by the Detaining Authority except in exceptional and extremely limited grounds. The court cannot substitute its own opinion for that of the Detaining Authority when the grounds of detention are precise, pertinent, proximate and relevant, that sufficiency of grounds is not for the Court but for the Detaining Authority for the formation of subjective satisfaction that the deten .....

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..... apons, the nearby shop keepers closed their shops out of fear and auto drivers took their autos from their stand and left the place. According to the Detaining Authority, the above scene created a panic among the public. In such circumstances, the scene created by the detenu and his associates cannot be termed as only law and order problem but it is public order as assessed by the Detaining Authority who is supposed to safeguard and protect the interest of public. Accordingly, we reject the contention raised by learned senior counsel for the appellant. 14) The next contention relates to non-application of mind by the Detaining Authority in respect of the bail obtained by the detenu. Learned AAG, by drawing our attention to the factual details narrated in the grounds of detention and in the counter affidavit submitted that such argument is factually incorrect. A contention has been raised that the accused had obtained regular bail in all the criminal cases referred to in the detention order and not anticipatory bail as noted therein, and therefore, there is non-application of the mind to the relevant material by the Detaining Authority. As rightly pointed out by learned counse .....

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..... as rightly pointed out by the learned counsel for the State, this argument is solely baseless since the detenu simultaneously made a representation to the Government and the Government had fully considered his representation and rejected the same on 12.08.2011. Further, the Advisory Board has also rejected the representation of the detenu by order dated 23.08.2011 thereby confirming the detention. This is also clear from the information furnished in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent-State before this Court. 17) Finally, learned senior counsel for the appellant submitted that the cases relied on by the Detaining Authority are stale. In order to answer this contention, we once again perused the entire grounds of detention. The ground case relates to the occurrence dated 18.07.2011 and prior to that, the detenu was involved in two cases in the year 2010 and one case in the year 2008. The above details clearly show that the detenu was a habitual offender and as such instances shown are not stale as argued by the learned senior counsel for the appellant. These aspects have been taken note of by the High Court, in fact, the High Court has found that the detenu ha .....

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