Maintaining that a petition is pending admission for five years, and although nobody appeared for the petitioner, the Bombay High Court recently, on its own, quashed and set aside externment order by Bhiwandi police of 2018, externing Mohd Shakeel Momin outside the area of Thane district. The court noted that there were offences registered against him from 2006, but no offence between 2006 and 2015, and again three offences registered in 2016 and 2017. The bench noted that the externing authority could have taken only those three proximate offences against him and not the 'stale' offences. The bench allowed the plea on the ground that the petitioner was externed for the maximum period of two years without assigning any reason and without recording any subjective satisfaction as to why he was externed for two years. A single-judge bench of Justice Sarang V Kotwal on June 20 noted that none appeared for petitioner Momin in his plea filed in 2018, and it is pending for admission by court since then. The bench decided the petition with assistance from Additional Public Prosecutor M R Tidke representing the state government. The bench then quashed and set aside the two externment orders against the petitioner and disposed of the plea.
