The appellant, Abdul Latif Mirza, was detained under the Special Powers Act, 1974 for a speech, which the government said denounced "the fundamental principles of state policy" laid out in Part II of the Constitution of Bangladesh.
The government said the appellant was detained in order to prevent any attempt to capture state power through violent means.
As that provision was controlled by Article 102 (2) (b) (i) of the Constitution, the court must scrutinise the materials considered by the detaining authority for its ‘satisfaction’ and must itself be satisfied that the detention was legal.
[3] The Special Powers Act standing by itself emphasises that the opinion of the detaining authority to act is purely subjectively, but the Constitution has given a mandate to the High Court to satisfy itself, as a judicial authority, that the detention is a lawful detentionThe court approved the concept of ‘due process’ given by Justice Hamdoor Rahman.
The ‘due process’ concept in the American jurisdiction requires that the governmental actions as well as the laws made by the legislature must not be arbitrary and must be reasonable and no man should be adversely dealt with without giving him opportunity of being heard.