Indian detainee case resumes

Press, 3 February 1984, Page 8

Indian detainee case resumes

PA Auckland Legal debate in the case of an Indian national detained without trial in Mount Eden Prison last year has resumed after an adjournment of three months.

Jagpal Singh Benipal, aged 25, has filed a number of High Court actions inquiring into the legality of his detention and challenging Ministerial decisions not to grant him political refugee status. Mr Benipal was arrested in May after arriving at Auckland Airport with a false Dutch passport.

He was detained in Mount Eden Prison for months and was due to be deported when lawyers acting for him filed a number of legal applications preventing his deportation until the issue was heard in the High Court.

In a two-week hearing before Mr Justice Chilwell in October, Mr Benipal filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking an inquiry into his detention without trial.

A second action, laid against the registrar of the District Court in Auckland and the Attorney-General, challenges the validity of a procedure by which a warrant was obtained to hold Mr Benipal in custody.

A further action challenges the joint decision of the Minister of Immigration, Mr Malcolm, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Cooper, declining Mr Benipal refugee status.

A fourth action has been laid against the two Cabinet Ministers and the Inter-de-partmental Committee on Immigration as a colleteral set of proceedings under writs of certiorari, prohibition, and mandamus. A number of witnesses, including the Director of Immigration, Mr Donald Bond, gave evidence at the October hearing. The hearing, which resumed yesterday, is due to last several days, with debate on legal points by counsel for Mr Benipal, Mr Rodger Haines, and Mr Bruce Squire, for the Crown.