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Prashant Khurana Vs. State of U.P. and anr. - Court Judgment

SooperKanoon Citation
SubjectCriminal
CourtAllahabad High Court
Decided On
Case NumberHabeas Corpus Writ Petn. No. 40333 of 2001
Judge
Reported in2002CriLJ2219
ActsCustom Act
AppellantPrashant Khurana
RespondentState of U.P. and anr.
Appellant AdvocateA.K. Srivastava, Adv.
Respondent AdvocateS.N. Srivastava, SC, A.G.A.
DispositionPetition dismissed
Excerpt:
- land acquisition act, 1894 [c.a. no. 1/1894]. section 4; [sushil harkauli, s.k. singh & krishna murari, jj] acquisition of land held, court cannot issue a writ of mandamus directing the state authorities to acquire a particular land. land acquisition is not purely ministerial act to be performed by executive no direction in nature of mandamus whether interim or final can be issued by court under article 226 necessarily to acquire particular land in public interest. land acquisition is not a purely ministerial act to be performed by the executive and therefore, no mandamus can be issued by the court in exercise of its power under article 226 of the constitution, whether suo motu or otherwise, whether in public interest litigation or otherwise directing acquisition of land under..........and placed them before the authorities. this consisted of about 42,000 american dollars. these persons stated that they were taking these foreign currencies to nepal for exchanging them for gold biscuits to take them to punjab. they admitted that these foreign currencies have been obtained by smuglling gold biscuits from nepal to india. they also admitted that earlier also they have committed such offences and have given the gold biscuits secretly to persons in india. they have obtained bail from the chief judicial magistrate, varanasi and have been released and it was apprehended that they will commit the same offence again. hence the impugned detention order was passed against them.4. a counter affidavit has been filed in which it has been stated in paragraph 3 that the petitioner.....
Judgment:

M. Katju, J.

1. This writ petition has been filed against the impugned detention order dated 23-10-2000 passed under the Cofeposa which is said to have been served on the petitioner on 6-7-2001 vide Annexure-5 to the writ petition.

2. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties.

3. A perusal of the grounds of detention which has been annexed to the detention order shows that the allegations against the petitioner are that on 4-3-2000 at about 1 a.m. the Custom and Revenue authorities detained four persons including the petitioner travelling in the down train the Gorakhpur railway station. The petitioner and his associates on questioning accepted that they were secretly carrying foreign currency. They were brought to the office of the Reve-nue Intelligence Department, Gorakhpur where these persons took out two bundles of foreign currency each from their person and placed them before the authorities. This consisted of about 42,000 American dollars. These persons stated that they were taking these foreign currencies to Nepal for exchanging them for gold biscuits to take them to Punjab. They admitted that these foreign currencies have been obtained by smuglling gold biscuits from Nepal to India. They also admitted that earlier also they have committed such offences and have given the gold biscuits secretly to persons in India. They have obtained bail from the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi and have been released and it was apprehended that they will commit the same offence again. Hence the impugned detention order was passed against them.

4. A counter affidavit has been filed in which it has been stated in paragraph 3 that the petitioner has been charged for offences under the Custom Act and has been released by the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate dated 27-6-2000. In paragraph 4 of the counter affidavit it is stated that on 9-4-2001 the petitioner has been awarded three years reigorous imprisonment in the case under the Custom Act but the learned Addi-tional District and Sessions Judge has converted the sentence and petitioner has been released but he is presently in jail in Cofeposa. The petitioner's representation has been rejected by the State Government vide the impugned order dated 13-8-2001 and the Central Government has also rejected his representation.

5. In our opinion, there is no ground for this Court to interfere in the impugned order, as the acts of the petitioner and his associates are so serious that it is necessary to pass the impugned order. The entire economy of the country gets subverted by such acts committed by the petitioner and his associates. Hence we see no reason to interfere with the impugned detention order. Merely because the petitioner has been granted bail it does not mean that the detention order cannot be passed. There is also no delay in deciding his representation.

The petition is hence dismissed.


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