# [1975] 3 S.C.R. 193

- **Citation:** [1975] 3 S.C.R. 193
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1975-01-17
- **Case number:** Writ Petition No. 444 of 1974
- **Bench:** V. R. Krishna Iyer, R. S. Sarkaria
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/1975-3-s-c-r-193-6403
- **Pages:** 4

## Headnote

Maint~nance of ~1uenwl Security Act, 1971 (Act XXVI of 1971), Section
3( l) (a)(11)-Detentron order, whether illegal on account of solitary incident.
The petitioner has been detained in pursuance of the order of detention'.
passed by tbe District Magistrate under sub-s. (l)(a)(ii) of s. 3 of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971.
The act imputed to the deten\l'e is as.
follows:
"That on 16-2-73 between 10..08 and 10-14 hours you along with
your other associates, being armed with gun and other w~apons com·
mitted a dacoity In a 3rd class compartment of running train S 11 O
Dn. between Habibpur R.S. and Kalinarayanpur Junction R.S. in
Ramaghat-Santipur Section and snatched away cash Rs, 30,000 /. from
Shri Ashutosh Pal of Calcutta causing bullet injuries to him putting
all passengers to fear of death."
It was contended for the detenu that ?. solitary incident
canno't
imperrn
i11ternal security and therefore, the order is illegal.
Rejecting the contention and dismissing the writ .petition.
HELD : One who reads the ground of detention, will be alarmed by the
training and planning and sinister preparation of skill and spirit which has.
made possible the commission of the act imputed-organised dacoity in a
running railway train by an armed gang equipped with fire-arms and putting
innocent passengers to Peril to life and property.
Such action is so manifestly
suggestive of desperate daring. organised
ganging and habitual proclivity to
violenee that. it cannot be held unreasonable to infer therefrom a trendy
course of criminal conduct-,a!though
intercepted or detected but
oncelikely to break public order in a brazen manner and panicking the community
by show of force.
In this view, the petitioner's detention cannot be castigated as illegal.
[194F-Gl
Obiter : It is fair that persons kept incarcerated and embittered without
trial should be given some chance to reform themselves by reasonable recour~e to the parole power under s. 15. Calculated risks. by release for short
periods may, perhaps, be a social gain, the beneficient jurisdiction being wisely
exercised.
[195Fl
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition No. 444 of 1974.
Petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution of India.
0. P. Mcdviya, for the petitioner.
M. M. Kshatriya, and G. C. ,Chatterjee, for the respondent.

## Text

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THE S'.f ATE OF WEST BENGAL
January 17, 1975
[V. R. KRISHNA IYER AND R. S. SARKARIA, JJ.]
Maint~nance of ~1uenwl Security Act, 1971 (Act XXVI of 1971), Section
3( l) (a)(11)-Detentron order, whether illegal on account of solitary incident.
The petitioner has been detained in pursuance of the order of detention'.
passed by tbe District Magistrate under sub-s. (l)(a)(ii) of s. 3 of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971.
The act imputed to the deten\l'e is as.
follows:
"That on 16-2-73 between 10..08 and 10-14 hours you along with
your other associates, being armed with gun and other w~apons com·
mitted a dacoity In a 3rd class compartment of running train S 11 O
Dn. between Habibpur R.S. and Kalinarayanpur Junction R.S. in
Ramaghat-Santipur Section and snatched away cash Rs, 30,000 /. from
Shri Ashutosh Pal of Calcutta causing bullet injuries to him putting
all passengers to fear of death."
It was contended for the detenu that ?. solitary incident
canno't
imperrn
i11ternal security and therefore, the order is illegal.
Rejecting the contention and dismissing the writ .petition.
HELD : One who reads the ground of detention, will be alarmed by the
training and planning and sinister preparation of skill and spirit which has.
made possible the commission of the act imputed-organised dacoity in a
running railway train by an armed gang equipped with fire-arms and putting
innocent passengers to Peril to life and property.
Such action is so manifestly
suggestive of desperate daring. organised
ganging and habitual proclivity to
violenee that. it cannot be held unreasonable to infer therefrom a trendy
course of criminal conduct-,a!though
intercepted or detected but
oncelikely to break public order in a brazen manner and panicking the community
by show of force.
In this view, the petitioner's detention cannot be castigated as illegal.
[194F-Gl
Obiter : It is fair that persons kept incarcerated and embittered without
trial should be given some chance to reform themselves by reasonable recour~e to the parole power under s. 15. Calculated risks. by release for short
periods may, perhaps, be a social gain, the beneficient jurisdiction being wisely
exercised.
[195Fl
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition No. 444 of 1974.
Petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution of India.
0. P. Mcdviya, for the petitioner.
M. M. Kshatriya, and G. C. ,Chatterjee, for the respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered. by
KRISHNA IYER, J.-A single act of outrageous violence in a running
train on February 16, 1973 by an armed gang, of which the petitioner
was alleged t9 be a member, persuaded the District Magistrate
of Nadia to direct his detention under sub-s. (1) (a)(ii) of s. 3 of
the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971 (Act XXVI of 1971)
(hereinafter called the MISA, for short). The subsequent statutory
requirements have been fulfilled impeccably and the only maior sub14- L379 Sup.C 175
194
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975) 3 S.C.R.
mission of the petitioner is that on merit~, he is not guilty, that a case
charge-sheeted against him has ended in a discharge and that a single
incident is insufficient to constitute 'a. stream of tendency' warranting
preventive detention.
M.ost of the submisions urged have no force.
The fact that the petitioner was discharged by a court for the :same
crime does no bear o:i. the power to detain, nor are we impressed with
the other arguments urged before us. Learned counsel Sri Malviya,
appearing amicus curiae, strenuously contended that one swallow does
not make a summer and likewise a solitary incident cannot imperil
maintenance of internal security and so the order is bad. He relied on
certain rulings of this Court and, rightly so.
This Court has been vigilant to see that isolated offences are not
exploited by executive authorities for clamping down preventive d1~ten
tion,insouciantly to by-pass the normal judicial processes. But there is
one exceptional category of cases where an only dangerous deviance
may itself demonstrate its potentiality for continuing criminality and
indicate previous practice, experiment and expertise. In such a narrow
category oj' causes it is difficult to predicate abuse of power or absence
of applicati-On of mind by the authority if preventive detention is
directed solely on one specialised crime.
In the present case the act imputed to the detenu is set out in the
detention order thus :
"That on 16-2-73 between 10-08 and 10-14 hours you,
along with your other associates, being armed with gun and
other weapons committed a dacoity in a 3rd class compartment of running train S. 110 Dn. between Habibpur R.S. and
Kalinarayanpur Junction R. S. in Ramaghat-Santipur Section
: and snatched away cash Rs. 30,000/- from Shri Ashutosh
Pal of Calcutta causing bullet injuries. to him putting all passengers to fear of death .. "
He who runs a.nd reads-if the statement were true and its veraciity is
unavailable for judicial scrutiny-will be alarmed by the training and
planning and sinister preparation of skill and spirit which has made
possible the commission of the act imputed-organized dacoity in a
running railway train by an armed gang equipped with firearms and
putting innocent passengers to peril to life and property. Such action
is so manifestly suggestive of desperate daring, organized ganging .and
habitual proclivity to violence that- it cannot be held unreasonable to
infer therefrom a trendy course of criminal conduct-although inter-
;:epted or detected but once-likely to break public order in a brazen
manner and panicking the community by show of force. We arc not
concerned with the merits of the alleged offence, since that is assigned
by the Legislature t9 the_ subjective satisfiaction of the authority. In this
view, the petitioner's detention cannot, in the present case, be castigatetl
as illegal, since we regard it as exceptional.
. While disch.arging the ru~e issued and dismissing the petition, we
wish to emphasize_ that s. 15 1s otlten Jost sight of by the Government in
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BABULAL v. WEST BENGAL (Krishna Iyer, J.)
195
such situations, as long term preventive detentions can be self-def~ating
or criminally counter-productive. Section 15 reads:
"15. Temporary release of persons detained.-
( 1) The appropriate Government may, at any time,
direct that iiny person detained in pursuance of a
detention order may be released for ·any specified _
period either without conditions or upon such conditions specified in the direction as that person accepts,
and may, at any time, cancel his release.
(2) In directing the release of any person under subsection (1), the appropriate Government may require
him to enter into a bond with or without sureties for
the due .observance of the conditions specified in the
direction.
(3~ Any person released under sub-section (1) shall surrender himself at the time and place, and to the authority, specified in the order directing his release or cancelling his release, as the case may be.
( 4) If any person fails without sufficient cause to surrender
himself in the manner spedfiect in sub-section (3), he
shall be. punishable with imprisonment for a term
may exte~d to two years, or with fine, or with
both.
(5) Hi any person released under sub-section
(1) fails
to fulfil any of the conditions imposed upon him
under the said sub-section or in the bond entered
into by him, the bond shall be declared to be forfeited
and any person bound thereby shall be liable to pay
the penalty thereof."
We consider that it is fair that persons kept incarcerated and- embittered without trial should be given some chance to reform themselves
by reasonable recourse to the parole power under s. 15. Calculated
risks, by release for short periods may, perhaps, be a social gain, the
beneficient jurisdiction being wisely exercised.
In this context we
would recall the observations made by this Court in Anil Dey v. Staie
of West Bengal. ( 1)
"The petition, therefore, deserves to be dismissed. However, the fact remains that the petitioner was arrested in September 1972, and has been in deterrent incarceration for nearly a year and half. Prolonged imprisonment without trial
alienates the individual against ·society and makes him a vengeful enemy when he ultimately emerges from the prison cell.
Indeed~ it is a serious injury inflicted on an individual by the
State which can be justified as a measure of social defence
o:ily in extreme circumstances. Bnt to jail a man on subjective satisfaction of possible prejudicial activity and to forget.
about him after the statutory formalities have been perform-
( I) A.I.R. 1974 S.C. 832.
/
196
SUP!l_EME COURT REPORTS
[19751 3 s.c.R.
ed is not fair to the constitutional guarantees. It is appropriate
A
·tor a democratic government not merely to confine preventive dett:ntion to serious cases but also to review. periodically
the need fur the continuance of the incarceration. The rule
of law and public conscience must be respected to the max:imum extent risk-taking permits, and we dismiss the present
petition with the hopeful thought that the retitioner and
others like him will _not languish in prison cells for a day
8
longer than the administrator thinks is absolutely necessary
for the c:ritical safety of society."
The State may be reminded, in its own interests, of this Court's anxious
admonition in Gama( 1) :
"If the detaining authority takes the chance of conviction
and, wh1!n the court verdict goes against it, falls back on it:;
detention power to punish one whom the Court would not
convict, it is an abuse and virtual nullificatio11 of the judicia1l
process. !fl honestly finding a dangerous person getting
away with it by over-awing witne~ses or concealing the commission devcrly, an authority thinks, on the material before:
him that there is likelihood ofl and need to interdict public
disorder at his instance he may validly direct detention. The
distinction is fine but real."
We hope the humanist mandate in s. 15 of the MISA will not rust
in the statute book but will be used by Government to humanise, by
gradual assimilation into society, those who, with blood-shot eyes., hate
and intimidate their fellow men. The rare use of this provision suggests tha~ the compassion and conscience of the law must be actively
shared by the men who operate the machine from executive cells ..
V.M.K.
Petition dismissed.
( 1) [1974] 4 s.c.c. 530, 534,
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