Delhi High Court quashes detention order against drug kingpin Sharafat Sheikh, says order not explained to him in language he understands

The Delhi High Court on Friday quashed the preventive detention order against drug kingpin Sharafat Sheikh under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) Act, 1988 [Sharafat Sheikh @ Md. Ayub v Union of India and Anr]..A Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar also quashed the order confirming Sheikh’s detention for a period of one year.While the order was passed on April 1, 2021, his detention for a year was confirmed on June 15, 2021..In its order, the court noted that the Supreme Court as well as the Delhi High Court have held in their judgments that the mandate of Article 22(5) of the Constitution would be served only if the grounds of detention are explained to the detenue in a language that he understands, so as to enable him to avail the fundamental right of making an effective representation.However, Sheikh has only studied up to class VIII and the documents/orders were not supplied or communicated to him in the language which he understood and the contents of the documents were not explained to him in the language known to him by the detaining authority, the Court said.“One glance on these stamped acknowledgments leaves us in no manner of doubt that the signatures have been obtained in a very casual, routine and mechanical manner. There is not even a whisper in these acknowledgments obtained that the detention order/relied upon documents have been understood by the detenue in the language known to him i.e Hindi or explained to him in vernacular,” the Court said..The judges added that simply because Sheikh has put his signatures in English does not, by any stretch of imagination, go to show that he understands English and as a consequence understood the grounds of detention and relied upon documents.“Signing in English and writing and understanding English are two different things and it cannot be said that if one signs in English, therefore he has full understanding of the language. In other order, the ability to write one‟s signature in English does not translate to having a working understanding of the language,” the Court stated. .Sheikh was arrested by the Delhi Police in 2020 and has been involved in more than 35 cases related to drug trafficking.When the provisions of the PIT NDPS Act were invoked against him to keep him under preventive detention, the Delhi Police had claimed that it was a first of its kind case.Sheikh is currently lodged in Tihar Jail..Advocates Tanmaya Mehta, Shreya Gupta, Anurag Sahay and Mallika Bhatia appeared for Sheikh.AG Chetan Sharma along with CGSC Ajay Digpaul and advocates Soumava Karmakar and Kamal Digpaul appeared for the Union of India..[Read Order]