BENGALURU: Taking note of lapses in following the procedure before taking an accused into custody in preventive detention cases, the Karnataka High Court has laid down certain guidelines for the government and the detaining authority while initiating proceedings under the Preventive Detention Laws.
The division bench of Justice K N Phaneendra and Justice K Natarajan laid down these guidelines while quashing a detention order passed by the City Police Commissioner. The court also ordered to immediately release one Ravi Kumar, a detained individual.
This was after hearing the petition filed by Jayamma (63), a resident of Shettipura in Amruthur taluk of Tumakuru, who asked the court to declare the detention of her son Ravi Kumar as illegal and void ab initio. Kumar was detained by the Police Commissioner on August 29, 2018. She filed the petition on several grounds, including the detention documents not being in Kannada and the pages not being legible.
The court said that Kumar had been accused of drug peddling. However, on what basis did the detaining authority come to this conclusion is not established in the order, the court added.
Therefore, the court said that certain guidelines should be followed when detaining a person. The detention order should be communicated to the detenu, along with the grounds of detention, not later than five days from the date of passing the detention order. The order should be made available in a language that the person understands.
“If the order of detention is challenged, the courts also shall have to independently consider each ground to ascertain on each ground whether the order is sustainable or not with reference to the guidelines. If any representation is submitted by the detenu before the detaining authority, the authority concerned should consider it as early as possible,” the court said.