In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld detention orders passed under the COFEPOSA Act against two individuals involved in a large-scale gold smuggling operation. The High Court had quashed the orders on two grounds: first, that relied-upon documents were not served simultaneously with the detention orders; and second, that the detaining authority failed to expressly record satisfaction about the possibility of bail release. The Court held that serving grounds and documents within the statutory five-day period satisfies constitutional and statutory requirements, even if not on the same day. It also ruled that subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority, when grounded in materials on record, need not be invalidated merely for lack of explicit findings on bail prospects. The Court reversed the High Court, emphasizing that preventive detention protects national economic security and that procedural safeguards, when substantially complied with, do not vitiate validly reasoned detention orders.
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