NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court recently directed the immediate release of a 24-year-old law student hailing from Madhya Pradesh who had been under preventive detention for nearly a year under the National Security Act, 1980 (NSA), after noting that detention of the appellant, was “wholly untenable”.
The top court ordered that the petitioner (appellant) Annu alias Aniket, be released immediately from Central Jail, Bhopal, if he was not required in any other criminal case.
A two-judge vacation bench of the top court, led by Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Vinod Chandran observed that the grounds mentioned in the order, which include disruption of law and order did not satisfy the requirements of Section 3(2) of the NSA.
“We are of the view that the reasons for which he has been taken into preventive detention does not satisfy the requirement of Sub Section(2) of Section 3 of the NSA, 1980. Preventive detention of the appellant, therefore, becomes wholly untenable”, the court said. Section 3(2) empowers the Union and state governments to order preventive detention of a person.
The petitioner, had been booked following an altercation on June 14, 2024, at a university campus in Betul, after he allegedly clashed with a professor.
Following this, an FIR was filed for attempt to murder and other offences against Annu, forcing him to surrender on June 16 and was placed in judicial custody. While in jail, the NSA detention order was issued against him. This order was later confirmed and extended every three months.
The Court noted that the detention order had been extended four times, with the last extension valid till July 12, 2025.
After hearing Annu’s appeal, the apex court said, “At the most, these are all issues of law and order. ‘Public order’ is something bigger”.