Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980

8. Grounds of order of detention to be disclosed to person affected by order

(1) When a person is detained in pursuance of a detention order, the authority making the order shall, as soon as may be, but ordinarily not later than five days and in exceptional circumstances and for reasons to be recorded in writing, not later than ten days from the date of detention, communicate to him the grounds on which the order has been made and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against the order to the appropriate government.

(2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall require the authority to disclose facts which it considers to be against the public interest to disclose.

Comment: It will be seen that right to represent has been given not only by Article 22(5) of the Constitution but also by Section 8 of the Act. The right provided under the Act has, therefore, to be treated as an extension of the constitutional right already available to a detenu under Article 22(5). The legislature has, in fact, given effect to the constitutional right by providing in Section 8 of the Act that the detenu shall have the right  of making a representation to the appropriate government. Kundanbhai Dulabhai Shaikh v. Distt . Magistrate, Ahmedabad , AIR 1996 SUPREME COURT 2998