Preventive detention only in exceptional cases: SC

A three-judge Bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju, Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra and Justice S S Nijjar said ordinary laws of the country should be used to deal with suspected criminals and measures like preventive detention should be avoided as they put citizens behind the bars without a proper trial. “Prevention detention is, by nature, repugnant to democratic ideas and an anathema to the rule of law…. However, since Article 22 (3) (b) of the Constitution permits preventive detention, we cannot hold it illegal but we must confine the power of preventive detention within very narrow limits,” Justice Katju said.

The Court added that if the ordinary law of the land  (IPC and other statutes) can deal with a situation, recourse to a preventive detention law will be illegal. “Personal liberty protected under Article 21 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 impugned detention meticulously accords with the procedure established by the law,” the Court said.

The rulings were made in a verdict allowing an appeal filed by Rekha, wife of Ramakrishnan, an accused in the sale of expired drugs.
DH News Service