Thirty years on, the Bombay High Court has quashed a detention order passed against a 62-year-old man over suspicion that he was involved in the unauthorised acquisition and transfer of foreign exchange. The detention was issued against one Abdul Rasheed in 1993, and the same was confirmed by the Center in 2023.
The order was quashed by a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse, observing that the authority had failed to justify the execution of the order after 30 years and directed that he be released forthwith.
Court allows Center to approach SC
The bench, however, stayed its order for two weeks to allow the Center to approach the Supreme Court.
Rasheed was detained on February 28, 2023, for a year under provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA).
He then approached the HC challenging the detention order passed by the Union Ministry of Finance under provisions of the COFEPOSA on May 17, 1993, and the order passed by the ministry on May 24, 2023, confirming the 1993 order.
The judges said that the authorities made no efforts to trace Rasheed’s whereabouts. The authorities have not even claimed that Rasheed was engaged in any prejudicial activity or indulged in any objectionable activity, the HC said.
"In the absence of all the possible steps taken to serve the detention order upon the petitioner, the detaining authority is not justified in executing the detention order after thirty years on the ground that the petitioner was absconding,” it said.
Detaining authority fails to give satisfactory explanation
The detaining authority also failed to give a “satisfactory explanation” for not executing the 1993 order of detention for 30 years.
Detention under the COFEPOSA is for preventing persons from acting in any manner prejudicial to the conservation or augmentation of foreign exchange preventing smuggling goods, or harbouring a person engaged in such activities.
The bench noted, “… there must be conduct relevant to the formation of the satisfaction having reasonable nexus with the petitioner's action, which is prejudicial to make an order for detaining him.”
One Umar Mohamad was apprehended at the Mumbai airport in 1992 when he was leaving for Dubai with a substantial amount of foreign currencies allegedly concealed by him. Following his statement, a detention order was passed against Rasheed, claiming that there was reason to believe that Rasheed was engaged in unauthorised acquisition of foreign exchange and transferring the same surreptitiously out of India.
