The Madras High Court has set aside an order of August this year detaining Tiruvarur district secretary of the DMK K. Kalaivanan under the Goondas Act.
Mr. Kalaivanan was detained on August 4 on the orders of Tiruvarur District Collector.
Challenging the detention, his wife, Sinthanai Kalaivanan, filed a habeas corpus petition seeking the production of her husband before the court and setting him at liberty. Three cases had been registered against him, including one relating to alleged murder.
In its order, a Division Bench of Justices C. Nagappan and T. Sudanthiram said that the Supreme Court had laid down that when a person was in judicial remand, in order to clamp an order of detention, the detaining authority was bound to consider the real possibility of the detainee coming out on bail in the case in which he had been remanded and should express satisfaction over the same.
In the present case, though the detaining authority had referred to the judicial remand of the detainee, on the dismissal of the bail petition filed by Mr. Kalaivanan in the ground case, had omitted to consider the real possibility of the detainee coming out on bail and no satisfaction had been expressed by him in the grounds of detention. Such omission would vitiate the detention order.
On this ground alone, the detention was liable to be set aside.