DWARIKA PRASAD SAHU vs THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS.

The Supreme Court held that under Section 3(2)(iii) of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971, if any ground for detention is found to be non-existent or misconceived, the entire order of detention becomes invalid. The Court found that the District Magistrate failed to apply his mind to the grounds for detention, particularly ground number 5, which was irrelevant and could not support the detention. Consequently, the order of detention was quashed as it could not be determined whether the Magistrate would have ordered detention based solely on valid grounds.