Dalveer Bhandari, J. - (1.)The petitioner has filed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and has prayed, inter alia, that the writ of habeas corpus be issued, quashing the order of detention dated 6.2.91, passed by the Joint Secretary to the Government of India, under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974, with a view to preventing him from smuggling goods and also preventing him from engaging in, transporting, concealing and keeping smuggled goods. Acting on intelligence report on 15.1.91, the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, New Delhi (Headquarters) mounted surveillance in Sunder Nagar in the vicinity of a hotel Kailash Inn, 10, Sunder Nagar, New Delhi. The officers found one Caravan (Mini Bus) with foreign registration, parked outside the Inn. Enquiries with the hotel revealed that the owner of the Caravan was a Turkish national named Hamza Nozoglu, who was staying in Room no. 117 of the hotel. The officers visited the Inn and called the petitioner, Shri Hamza and asked him to show the relevant papers and to open the door of the vehicle for its search. This vehicle had crossed Attari Border (Punjab) on 11.1.91 as a carnet de-passage no-508435 issued on 26.12.90. The mini-bus was rummaged and after its extensive search, the officers succeeded in locating 20 packets wrapped with adhesive tape from the wardrobe of the mini-bus. Each packet contained two bars of I kg. each of foreign marked gold totally weighing 40 kgs. valued at Rs.l.48 crores. The officers then searched the room no. 117 of the Inn, where they recovered 4110 US $ and 2700 Iranian Rials and some documents. The search of the mini-bus and the room of the Inn was conducted in presence of two independent witnesses. On being asked, the petitioner could not produce any proof documentary or otherwise insupport of legal import/possession of the recovered smuggled gold bars. The officers, therefore, seized the said 40 foreign gold bars weighing 40 kgs. valued at Rs.l.48 crores alongwith wrappers of paper and adhesive tapes, 4110 US $ and 2700 Iranian Rials under reasonable belief that the same were smuggled and were liable to confiscation under the provisions of Customs Act, 1962.
(2.)One registration book B no.98967 dated 26.2.90, one driving licence Beige No. 10693 dated 13.7.76 and the carnet no-508435 dated 26.12.90 were taken into possession from room no. 117 of Kailash Inn, 10, Sunder Nagar, New Delhi and seized as the same were relevant to enquiry under the Customs Act. The mini bus was also seized The petitioner in the present writ petition submits that he has been falsely implicated in the case and he was forced/coerced to sign some blank papers and in fact he never knew the contents of the so-called voluntary statement alleged to have been recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act. Though the petitioner has challenged the detention order on various grounds but during the course of arguments before this court, the petitioner laid stress only on the ground of unexplained delay in consideration of his statutory representation by the respondent. The petitioner submits that unreasonable and unexplained delay in disposing of the petitioner's representation has resulted in infringement of his fundamental right under Article 22(5) of the Constitution of India, and the detention order be quashed because of this lapse on the part of the respondent. I have heard Mr. Ashutosh, Learned counsel for the petitioner, and Mr. K.K. Manan, learned counsel for the respondent/State. Mr. Manan has taken considerable pains in preparing a chart for the convenience of the court in order to test the veracity of the arguments of the Learned counsel for the petitioner. The admitted facts arc set out as under: The representation of the petitioner dated 30.7.91 was received by the respondent on 31.7.91. On 2.8.91, a letter was sent to the sponsoring authority i.e. DRI, requesting them to furnish parawise comments.
(3.)The comments were sent by the sponsoring authority on 16.8.91 vide its letter dated 8.8.91 . The papers were compiled and put up before the Joint Secretary on 19.8.91. The file was forwarded to the Joint Secretary, SS & DG with the remarks of Joint Secretary on 20.8.91. The file was then placed before the Minister of State on 23.8.91 and 'on the same day before the Finance Minister who rejected the representation. On 27.8.91, the file was received back and on the same day, a Memorandum rejecting the representation of the detenu was issued.