HYDERABAD: A ‘detention order’ will not sustain in a court of law if the documents relied upon by the detaining authorities are not supplied in vernacular language or the language known to the detenue (detainee). Even if such an order stating the grounds on which the order was passed is served in the language of the detainee but the rest of the documents supplied are in English or some other language not known to the detenue, that ‘order’ too will not sustain.
A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has held that it is the constitutional duty of the state to make the documents available in any language known to and understood by the detenue, failing which, it would violate his constitutional right. The bench was dealing with a plea filed by a woman seeking direction to the authorities to produce her husband (detenue) in the court and declare his detention as illegal. His detention order was given by the collector and magistrate of Chittoor district basing on the documents supplied by the superintendent of police.
The counsel for the petitioner argued that the impugned detention order was served on the detenue and he was sent to a prison in Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. The detention order and the grounds based upon were stated in Malayalam language as the detenue is from Kerala state, and he can read, write and understand Malayalam. However, the rest of the documents supplied to him were either in English or in Telugu, which are not known to him, he pointed out.
Agreeing that the documents were served to the detenue in English or Telugu but not in Malayalam language, the counsel for the respondent authorities said the detenue was, however, explained about each and every document and made him understand of the contents. If the respondents explained the documents orally to the detenue, then there was no mandatory requirement to supply the document in the language known to the detenue, he argued. The bench of justice Suresh Kumar Kait and justice U Durga Prasad Rao has held that the respondent authorities are duty-bound under Section 8 of the Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Dacoits, Goonda, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Landgrabbers Act to provide the documents in the known language of the detenu within five days from the date of detention.