KOCHI: In a breather for BJP, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday quashed the preventive detention of Thiruvananthapuram corporation councillor R Sugathan under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act (KAAPA) and ordered the superintendent of the Central Prison and Correctional Home, Viyyur, to release him.
The Thiruvananthapuram corporation is currently ruled by the BJP-led NDA with a wafer-thin majority. Sugathan had been placed under preventive detention for six months from June 8.
A division bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S issued the order on a petition filed by Aswathi G R, wife of Sugathan, seeking to quash the detention order.
The court found that the order by the district collector and district magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, was passed without proper application of mind or required subjective satisfaction.
Supreme Court lawyer Saurav Mishra and advocate Suvin R Menon, who represented the petitioner, submitted that of the seven criminal cases considered by the detaining authority, Sugathan had been granted bail in five. In the sixth, he was not arrested, while in the seventh, he had been granted anticipatory bail. They argued that the authority had not properly considered whether the bail conditions were sufficient to prevent Sugathan from involving himself in similar criminal activities in the future.
The Bench said the preventive detention order was liable to be set aside on the ground that the representations submitted by Sugathan had not been considered. The unexplained delay in considering his representation violated the constitutional safeguard guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution, the court held, making his continued detention unlawful.