Court case(1973) 2 SCC 674

Kanu Sanyal, a Naxalite leader, was arrested in West Bengal and held in Darjeeling jail, then transferred to Visakhapatnam jail in Andhra Pradesh under orders of a court there in connection with the Parvatipuram Naxalite conspiracy case. He moved the Supreme Court under Article 32 for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that his original detention was illegal and that the court must order his production before it. The State argued that his present custody was under a valid judicial order and that producing him was unnecessary.

Bhagwati J traced the history of the writ in England and held that production of the body before the court is not an indispensable feature of habeas corpus; it is a procedural device, not the substance of the remedy. The court may examine the legality of the detention on the return filed by the detaining authority. The relevant time for judging legality is the date of the return (the hearing), not the date of the initial arrest. Since Kanu Sanyal was then in custody under a lawful remand by a competent court in Andhra Pradesh, the petition was dismissed.