NEW DELHI: Observing that preventive detention is a draconian measure whereby a person can be detained without conviction, Supreme Court has held that such orders must reflect an independent application of mind by the detaining authority, and a mere statement that it’s “satisfied on examination of the proposals and supporting documents” is not sufficient.
Quashing a detention order passed by the home department of Nagaland government, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih said that the detaining authority, special secretary (home department), did not even make separate grounds of detention but merely acted upon the proposals for detention forwarded to her by the additional director general of police, which is not valid.
“The cryptic orders of detention passed by her (special secretary) merely recorded that she was satisfied, on careful examination of such proposals and other supporting documents, that sufficient grounds were made out for the detention of Ashraf Hussain Choudhary and Adaliu Chawang. This is not in keeping with the statutory scheme, inasmuch as Section 6 of the Act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) specifically refers to the order of detention ‘being made’ on separate grounds,” the court said.
“Further, Section 3(1) also records that the authorised officer, be it of the central govt or of a state govt, must be ‘satisfied’ that the person concerned required to be detained so as to prevent him/her from engaging in illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Such ‘satisfaction’ of the detaining authority necessarily has to be spelt out after application of mind by way of separate grounds of detention made by the detaining authority itself and cannot be by inference from a casual reference to the material placed before such detaining authority or a bald recital to the effect that the detaining authority was ‘satisfied on examination of the proposals and supporting documents’ that the detention of the individuals concerned was necessary,” it said.