Srinagar: Observing that personal liberty is sacrosanct, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed detention order under Public Safety Act against Anantnag youth.
The detention order (No.20/DMA/PSA/DET/2017) was passed by Deputy Commissioner Anantnag on 25 October last year, ordering Javeed Ahmad Dar be taken into preventive custody and lodged in District Jail Kathua.
Advocate G. Q. Bhat, appearing for Dar highlighted various grounds while seeking quashment of the order. Dar said that he has not been allowed to make an effective representation by not supplying the material forming base for the grounds of detention.
“Submission has a prevailing force. The records as produced do not suggest that the material forming basis for detention has been supplied to (Dar), therefore, infringement of right guaranteed under Article 22(5) of the Constitution,” a bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir said.
“The constitutional philosophy of personal liberty is an idealistic view, the curtailment of liberty for reasons of States’ security, public order, disruption of national economic discipline etc. being envisaged as a necessary evil to be administered under strict constitutional restrictions. Personal liberty protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is so sacrosanct and so high in the scale of constitutional values that it is the obligation of the detaining authority to show that the detention meticulously accords with the procedure established by law.”
The court said that right to liberty as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution can be negated in view of Article 22(3) (b) of the Constitution, which is an exception to Article 21 of the Constitution. “The said exception authorizes the concerned authorities to pass preventive detention but while passing such orders, the authority concerned is required to be alive to the personal liberty of a person. Such power has to be exercised in a manner, which may not have the trappings of depriving a person of the guaranteed liberty,” the court said and quashed the detention order. “Further custody of (Dar) shall be governed by the orders as shall be passed by the court of competent jurisdiction in connection with the criminal case(s) registered against him.
