# SALIM v. STATE OF \VEST BENGAL .fonuary 27, 1975

- **Citation:** [1975] 3 S.C.R. 394
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1972-06-13
- **Case number:** Writ Petition No. 506 of 1974
- **Bench:** M. H. Beg, Y. V. Chandrachud, A. C. Guph
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/salim-v-state-of-vest-bengal-fonuary-27-1975-6401
- **Pages:** 7

## Headnote

Maime11wu;;1' of lntunal Secul'ity Act. 1971-Words & phrases-Meaning of
'forthwith'-Ncm application of mind-·A. vaila.?ility of alternative remedy of
prosecution whethu im·alidar~s detmtion.
The ord~r of d~tention was pas-1~cl against the petitioner on 13-6-1972.
011
15th June the Dimict Magistrate rtporkd the fact of ma\:ing the order to the
Sta.le Government.
Sta.le GavernmenL approvtd the order on 21st June.
It wa> contended by the appellant·.
(!) Th<'t the Di~trict !\fagistrate did not report the maki'lg of the order
"forthwith" a' r~quired by s~ction 30) and that the detention was,
thcrdore. liable to be set aside.
A
B
c
(2) Since the State Government rejected the repres~ntation on the very
next day, it nm'! he helJ that it did not apply its mind to 1he
representation.
D
(3) The petitioner could have been pros·~cnted for the acts attribu!ed
to him and therefore could not be detained.
Dismissing the petition,
HELD : I..aws o{ Preventive D~tention by which subjo~ts are deprived of their
p~rsonal liberty without the safeguards available in a judicial trial ought to be
coll'Strued with the grea:cst strictness. The delay on the part of the Di:;trict
E
Magistr.tte in reporting to the State Government the fact of making the detention
order would inevitably curt:;,il the period available to th~ State Government for
approving the detention ord•:r.
Su~h a delay may conceivably lead to a hurried
and Cllrsory consideration of the propriety or justification of the order and tkreby
impair a valuable safeguard available to the detenu.
Therefore,
~he
word
'forthwith' cannot he construed so as to permit indolence or laxi'.y on the part
of the oflkcr charged with the duty of reporting the detention.
However. reasonable allowance has to be made for unavoidable delays, always remembering
that the detaining authority must· explain any long delay by pointing out circumF
stances due to which the report 10 the State Government could not be made with
the greatest promptitude.
The report was made to the State Government on
15th June which still left to it a margin of 10 days to consider the merits of
the order. It cannot be said that the delay in making the report left to the
State Government insufficient time to consider whether the order of detention
should be approved.
The ord~r was, in fact, approved on 21st June much before
the expiry of the statutory period.
The order is dated 13th. The explan3tion
of the Department that report could noc he m~de on 14th due to ndminist•·:1tive
G
difficulties is acceptable.
f'·95 G: 396 F-G; 397 B-q
The cont,ention of the
p.;:1ition~r that since the Stat~ Government r~jccted
th~ representation the yery next day. it must be held that it did not <ipply its
mmd to the representa!lon wrN negauved.
The length of time which a dcci sion
takes <loes not necessari1y reffec1s 1~Jt:
~:t-i'e of 1Jp-~n!"Jr~;·..; hrouo:ht to bear nix~n it.
[399 Al
· •
b
The cm1ltntion of t11c petiiianer tl1at
he could
have
been
prosernted
H
for the ai:ts attributed to him wa5 negatived on the ground that availability of
an alternate remedy is not by itself an effective answer to the validity of the
detention. [400 A-BJ
B
c
D
F
G
H
SALIM v. WEST BENGAL (Chandrachud, l.)
395
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.: Writ Petition No. 506 of 1974
Petition U,1der Article 32 of the Constitution. ·
D. N. Mukherjee and Gobind Mukhoty A.C., for the
~etitioner
G. S. C. Chatterjee of Sukumar Basu & Co., for the Respondent.
The Judgment of the Comt was delivered by
CHANDRACHUD, J.The petitioner,
Skq.
Salim,
challenges
by
this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution an order of detention passed by the District M:igistrate, 24-Parganas, under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971. The order was vassed
on
June 13, 1972 avowedly with a view to preventing the petitioner from
acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies a•.1d
services essential to the community.
The particulars furnished to the
petitioner refer to two incidents of theft da

## Text

394
SALIM
v.
STATE OF \VEST BENGAL
.fonuary 27, 1975
(M. H. BEG, Y. V. CHANDRACHUD AND A. C. GUPH, JJ.]
Maime11wu;;1' of lntunal Secul'ity Act. 1971-Words & phrases-Meaning of
'forthwith'-Ncm application of mind-·A. vaila.?ility of alternative remedy of
prosecution whethu im·alidar~s detmtion.
The ord~r of d~tention was pas-1~cl against the petitioner on 13-6-1972.
011
15th June the Dimict Magistrate rtporkd the fact of ma\:ing the order to the
Sta.le Government.
Sta.le GavernmenL approvtd the order on 21st June.
It wa> contended by the appellant·.
(!) Th<'t the Di~trict !\fagistrate did not report the maki'lg of the order
"forthwith" a' r~quired by s~ction 30) and that the detention was,
thcrdore. liable to be set aside.
A
B
c
(2) Since the State Government rejected the repres~ntation on the very
next day, it nm'! he helJ that it did not apply its mind to 1he
representation.
D
(3) The petitioner could have been pros·~cnted for the acts attribu!ed
to him and therefore could not be detained.
Dismissing the petition,
HELD : I..aws o{ Preventive D~tention by which subjo~ts are deprived of their
p~rsonal liberty without the safeguards available in a judicial trial ought to be
coll'Strued with the grea:cst strictness. The delay on the part of the Di:;trict
E
Magistr.tte in reporting to the State Government the fact of making the detention
order would inevitably curt:;,il the period available to th~ State Government for
approving the detention ord•:r.
Su~h a delay may conceivably lead to a hurried
and Cllrsory consideration of the propriety or justification of the order and tkreby
impair a valuable safeguard available to the detenu.
Therefore,
~he
word
'forthwith' cannot he construed so as to permit indolence or laxi'.y on the part
of the oflkcr charged with the duty of reporting the detention.
However. reasonable allowance has to be made for unavoidable delays, always remembering
that the detaining authority must· explain any long delay by pointing out circumF
stances due to which the report 10 the State Government could not be made with
the greatest promptitude.
The report was made to the State Government on
15th June which still left to it a margin of 10 days to consider the merits of
the order. It cannot be said that the delay in making the report left to the
State Government insufficient time to consider whether the order of detention
should be approved.
The ord~r was, in fact, approved on 21st June much before
the expiry of the statutory period.
The order is dated 13th. The explan3tion
of the Department that report could noc he m~de on 14th due to ndminist•·:1tive
G
difficulties is acceptable.
f'·95 G: 396 F-G; 397 B-q
The cont,ention of the
p.;:1ition~r that since the Stat~ Government r~jccted
th~ representation the yery next day. it must be held that it did not <ipply its
mmd to the representa!lon wrN negauved.
The length of time which a dcci sion
takes <loes not necessari1y reffec1s 1~Jt:
~:t-i'e of 1Jp-~n!"Jr~;·..; hrouo:ht to bear nix~n it.
[399 Al
· •
b
The cm1ltntion of t11c petiiianer tl1at
he could
have
been
prosernted
H
for the ai:ts attributed to him wa5 negatived on the ground that availability of
an alternate remedy is not by itself an effective answer to the validity of the
detention. [400 A-BJ
B
c
D
F
G
H
SALIM v. WEST BENGAL (Chandrachud, l.)
395
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION.: Writ Petition No. 506 of 1974
Petition U,1der Article 32 of the Constitution. ·
D. N. Mukherjee and Gobind Mukhoty A.C., for the
~etitioner
G. S. C. Chatterjee of Sukumar Basu & Co., for the Respondent.
The Judgment of the Comt was delivered by
CHANDRACHUD, J.The petitioner,
Skq.
Salim,
challenges
by
this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution an order of detention passed by the District M:igistrate, 24-Parganas, under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971. The order was vassed
on
June 13, 1972 avowedly with a view to preventing the petitioner from
acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of supplies a•.1d
services essential to the community.
The particulars furnished to the
petitioner refer to two incidents of theft dated January 31 and Febnrary 23, 1972.
The former relates to a theft of underground copper
cables and the latter to a theft of A.C.S.R. Coaductors.
The particulars further mention that on February 24, 1972 the petitioner and
two of his named associates were found in possession of 30 K. Gs of
stolen A.C.S.R. Conductors.
Section 3 (1) of the Act empowers the Centml Government and
the State Governments to pass orders of dete<ation for the reason;:
therein mentioned.
Secti.on 3 (2) confers power on District Magis- ,
trates, speci'ally empowered Additional District Magistrates and Commisstoners of Police to pass orders of detention for reasons specified therein.
If an order of detention is passed by any of these officers.
"hr. shall forthwith report the fact to the State Gover,1ment to which he is subordinate together with the grounds
on which the order has been made, and such other particulars as in his opinion have a bearing on the matter, and no
such order shall remain in force for more than twelve days
after the making thereof unless in the mea·.1time it has been
. approved by the State Government : "
'
ffhat is the clear mandate of section 3 (3).
The District Magistrate, in the instant case, made the detention ·
order on June 13, 1972 and on me 15th he reported the fact of making the order to the State Government. The question for consitleration, which has been argued with some fervour by the learned counsel
appearing amicus curiae for the petitioner, is whether the
District
Magistrate can be said to have repbrtcd the making of the order "forthwith" as required by section 3 (3).
Laws of preventive detention by which subjects are deprived of
their personal liberty without .the safeguards available in a judicial
trial ought to be comtrued with the greatest strictness.
Courts must
therefore be vigilant to ensure that the detenu is not deprl;ed of the
modicum of rights a<ad safeguards which the preventive law itself affords
to him.
The Maintenance of Internal Security Act contains what
is evidently thought to be a scheme of checks and counter-checks by
which the propriety or necessity of a detention order may at various
396
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975] 3 s.c.R.
stages be exami'.ted by various authorities. . If an order of deten~i?n is
made by ~. District Magistrate .or. a spec1alry. empow~red _,A~d1t1onal
Dis.trict Magistrate or a Comm1ss1oner of Police, he is required by
section 3(3) to report "forthwith" to the State Government about ~he
making of the order. The order c;lnnot remain in force for more tlrnn
: 12 days or in the circumstances mentioned in the Proviso to section
3(3), for more than 22 days unless in the meantime it has been approved by the State Government. If the ordet is made o~ approved
by the St•ate Government it must under section 3 ( 4) report the fact
to the Central Government within 7 days. By sectio.u 10, save
as
otherwise expressly provided in the Act, the appropriate Government
sh~U witpin 30 days from the date of detention under the order, place
before the Advisory Board constituted under section 9 the grounds
on which the order has b(:en made, the representation if a,1y m'ade by
the detenu and in case where the order has been made by any of the
officers specified \111dcr section 3 (2), the report made by the officc~r
under section 3 (3). Section J 1 (1) requires the Advisory Board to
submit its report. to the appropriate Government within 10 weeks from
the date of detention.
This time-schedule, evolved r11 order obviously
to provide an expeditious opportunity at different levels for testing
the justification of the detention order has to be observed scrupulously
and its rigour cannot be relaxed on any facile assumption that what is
good if done within 7, 12 or 30 days could as well be good if done,
say. withi'.1 JO, 15 or 35 days.
The requirement that the District Magistrate or the other officers
malking the order of detention shall forthwith report the fact of making the order to the State Government can therefore admit of no relaxa, ..
tion, especially because it has a distinct and important purpose to serv(:.
The 12 days' period which the Act in normal circumstances allows
to the State Government for approving the detentio'.1 order is evidently
thought to be reasonably' necessary for enabling the Government to
consider the pros and cons of the order.
Delay on the part of the
District Magistrate or the other officers in reporting to the State Gov.::tll:·
ment the fact of maki'.1g the detention order would inevitably aurtail
the period available to the State Government for approving the detention order. The period of 12 or 22 days. as the case may be, whic:~
is referred to in section 3 ( 3) runs from the date on which the order
of detention is made and not from the date on which the fact of makinii the order is reported to the State Government.
Such a delay may
conceivably lead to a hunied and cursory consideration of the pro·-
priety or justification of the order and thereby impair a valuable safeguard available to the detenu.
A liberal construction of the requirement that the officer makin~ the order of detention shall forthwith
report the fact to the Sta:~ Government is therefore out of place.
' Contending for the acceptance of the literal meaning of the word
'forthwith', counsel for the petitiO'.ler argues that administrative cxigen-
.cies cannot ever be 'allowed to explain away the delav between the
~a~:ing of .the detenti~n order and the report of it to the State Govem-
--meiltt. . It is an esilabl!shed rule of construction that unless the langu·-
age of the statute i.~ ambiguoo~, the words used by the Jegi~lature ought
A
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SALIM v. WEST BENOAL (Chandrachud, !.)
3 97
A
B
to be given their plain, literal meao.1ing. But it is ei;iually important
tilat by ·nq rule of construction ffi'ay the words of a statute be so interpretcd~.as to bring about absurd situations in practice. Ihe strangle-.
hold of stark literalness has therefore to be avoided in order to give
a rational meaning and content to the la'aguage used in the st11tute.
Thus, though the word 'forthwith' cannot be construed so as to ptJrmit
indolence or laxity on the part of the officer charged with the duty of
reporting the detention to the State Government, reasonable allowa.1ce
has to be m-ade for unavoidable delays, always remembering that the
detaining authority must explain any long delay by pointing out circumstances due to which the report to the State G•wernment could not be
ma'1e with the greatest promptitude.
c
D
E
f
The dictionary meaning of 'forthwith; is : "lm!llediately, at once,
without delay or interval".
A typical instance of the use of the word
cited in the dictionary is : "When a defendant is ordered to plead forth·
with, he must plead within twenty-four hours" (See Shorter Oxford
English Dictio'.iary, Third Edition, Vol. I, p.740). This shows that
the mandate that the report shonld be made forthwith does not require
for its compliance a foYow-up action at the split-second when the
order of detention is made.
There ought to be no laxity and laxity
cannot be condoned in face of the command that the report shall be
made forthwith.
The legislative mandate, however, Ca'anot be measured mathematically in terms of seconds, minutes and hours in order
to find whether the report was mal:Ie forthwith. Administrative exigencies may on occasions render a post-haste compliance impossible
and therefore a reasonable allowance has to be made for tmavoidable
delays.
This approach does not offend against the rule formulated
in Ki.shori Mohan Bera v. State of West Bengal (1), and followed in
Blutt Nath Mete v. The State of West Ben;:ai( 2 ). that a law depriving a 3ubject of personal liberty must be construed strictly.
The rule
of strict constructi0',1 is no justification for holding that the act to be
performed 'forthwith' must be perf.ormed the very instant afterwards
without any intervening intem1! of time or that it sh::iuld be performed
simultaneously with the other act.
Citing Sameen v. Abeyewickremae)' tviaxwell says that where something is to be dose forthwi•h,
a Court will not require instantaneous comtlliance with the ~1atulory
requirements ("The Interpretation' of Statut.es" 12'h Ed., pp. 101-102).
In Keshav Nilkanth /o~kkpr v. The
Commissioner of Police,
Greater Bombay(4), •a Constitution Bench of this Court had to deal
with· a similar contention foundt:d on section 3 ( 3) of the Preventive
G · Detention Act IV of 1950, which,was in terms identical with section__
3(3) of the Act under consideration. The order of detention was
passed in that case on January 13, 1956 but the report to the State
Government was made on January 21. Accepting the explanafrori
offered by the detaining authority in his affidavit as to why he c1'.iulct
not make the reoort earlier. the Court held that the question to comi<fer
under section 3 ( 3) was whether the report was sent at the earliest
~~~~~~~~~~ble and when there is an interval of time between
H
(n [t972J 3 sec 845.
(2l [19741 m sec 645 .
. · (3) flQl\.1] A.C. 597.
(4) fl956] S.C.R. 653.
I 1-423SCil1S
398
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975) 3 S.C.R.
the date of the order and the date of the report, whether the delay
could have been avoided.
The test which the Court applied for determining whether the report was made forthwith was whether the act
was done "with aH reasonable despatch •.ind without <l\'<.'idabk cklay."
In Bidya Deb Banna Etc. v.
Diwi,:1
,iJaf;istra:e. Tripura,
Agar/a/a, ( 1) the same problem arose for consideration. The District
Magistrate had passed the order of dctl'ntion under the Preventive
Detention Act, 1950 on February 9, 1968 but made his report to the
State Govcrnme'.lt on February 13.
While cxpluining the delay, the
District Magistrate stated in his affidavit that 10th and 11th Fdiruary
were closed days and he was during the particular period "extremely
busy" due to "heavy rush of work." This explanation was accepted by the Court as satisfactory. In coming to the conclusion that there
was no violation of the requirement that the report should be made
'forthwith', the Constitution Bench relied on Joglekar's case a,1d
on
the following passage which occurred in Maxwell's 1 lth edition at page
341 :
''When a statute requires that something shall be done
"forthwith", or "immediately" or even "instantly'', it should
probably be understoo\:! as allowing a reasonable time for
doing it."
Thus, 'forthWith' does not conaote a precise time and even if the
statute under consideration requires that the report shaU be made forthwith, its terms shall have been complied with if the report is
made
without avoidable or unreasonable delay.
In Hillingdon London Borough Council v. Cutler( 2),
Harman
L.J. while holding that the concept of 'forthwith' does not exclude
the allowance of a reasonable time for dorag the act, qualified his formulation by adding the rider "provided that no harm is done." Applying that test, no prejudice has been
caused to the petitioner
by the late making of the report.
The Srate Government could approve the d1!tention any time before June 25, the order havin!;
b~en
passed on June 13. The report was made to the State Government
cm .Tune 15 which still left to it a margin of about 10 days to consider
the merits of the order. It. cannot be said that the delay in making
the report left to the State Government insufficient time to consider
whether the order of detention should be approved.
The order was
in fact approved on June 21, much before the expiry of the statutory
period of 12 days.
The District Magistrate, it must be stated, has not explained in his
affidavit why he did not report the fact of detention to the State Government promptly.
The order js dated June 13 and if not on the 13th
itself, he should have in normal circumstances made his report on the
14th. Such remisness on the part of detaining authorities is not to
be encouraged but it ought to be stated that counsel for the State
Government ha\i asked for an adjournment to enable the District Maf!-
istrate to file a supplementary affidavit for explaining the delay. We
{I) [1969] 1 S.C.R. 562.
(2) [1968] I Q.B. 124. at p. 135.
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SALIM v. WEST BENGAL (Chandrachud, J.)
399
did not grant. the adjournment as we were inclined to the view that the
interval between the date of the order and the date of the report is
not s•o long as to require an explanation on oath. The date on which
the order was passe~:I. may, even according to the petitioner's counsel
be left out of the reckoning.
That accounts for the 13th. The report
was made on the 15th and there' is some authority for the proposition
that an act may be taken as done "at the first moment of the day on
which it was performed" (See Maxwell, 12th Ed. pp. 311-312). That
takes. care of the 15th. All that can therefore be said is that there was
one day's delay in making the report. We arc not inclined to dismiss
as untrue the oral explanation offered on behalf of the District Magistrate that he could not make the report on the 14th due to administrative difficulties.
As it cannot be said that the District Magistra1:e had.
slept over the order or was "lounging supinely" over it and since the
explanation of one day's delay ml!)' be accepted as reasonable, there is
no violation of the requirement that the report to the State Government
shall be made forthwith.
A few other contentions were raised on behalf of the petiti'oner but.
we se,e no substance in any one of them. It is contended that section
3(4) has been violated because the State Government did not make a
report to the Central Government within 7 days of the date of the
order of detention. The short answer to this contention is that the
period of 7 days has to be reckoned from the date on which the State
Government approved the order and not from the date on which the
District Magistrate passed the order. If the order were made by the
State Government, the report would have been required to be made to
the Central Government within 7 days of the date of the oltler; but the
order in the instant case was approved and not made by the State
Government. It was then said that there was no proximity between
the iqcidents leading to the detention and the order of detention as.
there was a gap of about 4 months in between. The explanation of
the interval is that the petitioner was being prosecute(! and an order of
discharge had t'O be obtained on June 17, 1972. The order of detention was passed 4 days betbre the order of discharge was passed. ·It
is next contended that the State Govemment having rejected the peti·
tioner's representation the very next day that it was received, it' must
be held that it did not apply its riiind to the representation. We do
not suppose that the length of time which a decision takes necessarily
reflects the care or openness brought to bear upon it. The answer to
yet another contention that the entire material which influenced the subjective satisfaction of the Magistrate in passing the order of detention
was not supplied to the petitioner is that according to the countered
affidavit of the District Magistrate, nothing apart from what is stated
-too
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975] 3 S.C.R.
in the grounds and the particulars was taken into account while pass·
ing the order of detention. The last submission that the petitioner
could have bee11 prosecuted for the .acts attributed t-o him has b<~en
answered by this Court in numerous cases by saying that the availability of an alternate reme:dy is not by itself an effective answer to the
validity of the detention.
In the result we dismiss the petition and discharge the rule.
P.H.P.
Petition dismissed.
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