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TMI Blog1972 (10) TMI 140X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t on Shri Bulo Das Gupta on the road in front of the office of Mahila Samity, Dhupguri, Police Station Dhupguri, District Jalpaiguri causing severe injuries on his person. Shri Das Gupta subsequently died in hospital. As a result of this murder committed by you people of the locality became highly terrorised and the public peace was greatly disturbed. On 19-7-1971 at about 19.30 hours you along with others forcibly entered into Dhupguri High School, Police Station Dhupguri, District Jalpaiguri and set fire to the school buildings causing irreparable loss to the institution in particular and the people in general, you set fire to the school with the ulterior object of causing dislocation in the present system of education and to compel the school authorities to close down the same. As a result of the fire set by you, the teachers and the local people became panic-stricken and the public peace was greatly disturbed. The fact of making the detention order was reported to the State Government on August 23, 1971. It was approved by the said Government on August 31, 1971; the same day this fact was reported to the Central Government. On December 9, 1971 the case was placed bef ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... itioner's arrest in six cases of which specific numbers were stated; nor is there any positive reply to the averment that he had been bailed out on November 10, 1971. Surprisingly enough no explanation was suggested for this omission even at the Bar during the course of arguments in this Court. 6. The respondents' learned Counsel relied on the averments made in para 7 of the counter-affidavit. It is stated therein: The detenue-petitioner is a staunch supporter of C.P.I. (ML) party and is active member of the Action-squad of that party. It appears that the petitioner along with his associates on 16-4-71 at about 20.00 hours committed murderous assault on Shri Bulo Das Gupta on the road in front of Mahila Samity P. S. Dhupguri in consequence whereof he died. It further appears that the detenue-petitioner along with others forcibly entered Dhupguri High School on 19-7-71 and yet fire to the school buildings causing substantial damages with ulterior object of causing dislocation in the present system of education. The aforesaid activities of the petitioner causes panic commotion amongst the members of the general public as well as the teachers of the said institutes a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he act. Take another case of a town where there is communal tension. A man stabs a member of the other community. This is an act of a very different sort. Its implications are deeper and it affects the even tempo of life and public order is jeopardized because the repercussions of the act embrace large sections of the community and incite them to make further breaches of the law and order and to subvert the public order. An act by itself is not determinant of its own gravity. In its quality it may not differ from another but in its potentiality it may be very different. The learned Chief Justice, after referring to the lines of demarcation drawn by Ramaswami J., in W.P. 179 of 1968 between serious and aggravated forms of breaches of public order which affect the community or endanger the public interest at large and minor breaches of peace which do not affect the public at large, and after noting the analogy drawn by Ramaswami J., between public and private crimes, cautioned against that analogy being pushed too far, observing, that a large number of acts directed against persons or individuals may total up into a breach of public order. After referring to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssential nature so as not to have meaningfully influenced the decision of the detaining authority. Similar problem has faced this Court on a number of occasions and the decision has generally gone in favour of the detenu. This Court in Dr. Ram Krishan Bhardwaj v. The State of Delhi 1953 CriLJ 1241. laid down that the requirement that the grounds must not be vague must be satisfied with respect to each of the grounds. In Dwarka Das Bhatia v. The State of Jammu Kashmir 1957 CriLJ 316. the principle deduced from the earlier decisions of this Court and also from the decision of the Federal Court in Keshav Talpade v. The King Emperor [1968] 2 S. C. R. 948. was stated thus : Where power is vested in a statutory authority to deprive the liberty of a subject on its subjective satisfaction with reference to specified matters, if that satisfaction is stated to be based on a number of grounds or for a variety of reasons, all taken together, and if some out of them are found to be non-existent or irrelevant the very exercise of that power is bad. That is so because the matter being one for subjective satisfaction, it must be properly based on all the reasons on which it purports to be b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t that the interest of the society is no less important than that of the individual. Our Constitution has made provision for safeguarding the interests of the society. Its provisions harmonise the liberty of the individual with social interest. The authorities have to act solely on the basis of those provisions. They cannot deal with the liberty of the individual in a casual manner, as has been done in this case. Such an approach does not advance the true social interest. Continued indifference to individual liberty is bound to erode the structure of our democratic society. 10. In the case before us there are only two grounds on which the detention order is based. One of them which relates to an occurrence of April, 1971 has no relevance or relation to the disturbance of public order. The other ground relates to an occurrence of July, 1971. This ground is no doubt germane to the object of maintenance of public order; but we are satisfied that the first ground is not of an unessential nature and in our view its exclusion from consideration might reasonably have affected the subjective satisfaction of the authority making the impugned order of detention. This was the test laid d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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