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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has recently set aside an externment order of Navi Mumbai Police against a man who was a member of the Popular Front of India (PFI).

A single-judge bench of Justice Shyam Chandak was hearing a petition filed by Abdul Rahim Yakub Sayyed challenging the externment order passed in an appeal by the Divisional Commissioner of Police.

Initially, Abdul approached the deputy commissioner against the order of the Deputy Commissioner.

The police alleged that the petitioner with the help of his associates had committed the offences of unlawful assembly, agitation, committing breach of prohibitory orders, threatening, etc. They added that the petitioner had created terror in the Panvel City and Kala Chowki area of Mumbai.

It was also alleged that Abdul had been collecting young boys and giving provoking speeches on caste disputes and anti-social acts thereby making brainwashing said boys and also pressuring them, to join the banned organization ‘PFI’.

The petitioner argued that there was no sufficient objective material to record the subjective satisfaction to pass the Order of Externment.

He argued that no crime was committed within Uran Police Station limits. Therefore, it was not necessary to add Uran taluq to the area of externment. Furthermore, he submitted that no reason is recorded to fix the duration of the externment as fifteen months.

The high court while setting aside the order said that the externment order was excessive and unreasonable.

“The reason to extern the Petitioner for fifteen months is not discernible from the record. As such, the Order of Externment is excessive and unreasonable. However, the same has been upheld by the Divisional Commissioner thereby dismissing the Appeal,” the order states.

The bench further observed that “It is settled law that, the measure of externment by its very nature is extraordinary. It has the effect of forced displacement from the home and surroundings. Often it affects the livelihood of the person ordered to be externed. Thus, there must exist justifiable grounds to sustain an Order of Externment. In other words, there must be sufficient objective material on the strength of which the externing authority wants to record the subjective satisfaction to pass the Order of Externment,” the order reads.

Case title: Abdul Rahim Yakub Sayyed vs State of Maharashtra