Supreme Court Rebukes Telangana Police Again, Says Preventive Detention Must Not Be Applied Routinely Without Application Of Mind

In a significant development, the Supreme Court has yet again rebuked the Telangana Police for routinely exercising the powers of preventive detention to detain individuals without considering the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution.

The Bench Comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra gave a warning to the Telangana Police to not pass detention order without the application of mind.

“We hope that the State of Telangana takes what has fallen from this Court very seriously and sees to it that the orders of preventive detention are not passed in a routine manner without any application of mind.”, the court remarked.

The observation of the Court came while deciding a plea of the person who was preventively detained by the Telangana Police for committing a repeated offence of “chain snatching”. The ground taken by the Telangana Police to justify the detention was that the act of the detenu affected the 'public order', by creating fear and panic in the minds of the women.

The Supreme Court quashed the detention order stating that the act of the detenu caused no prejudice to the 'public order' to invoke the powers of preventive detention.

It is important to mention that last year, in the Ameena Begum case, the Court had criticized the Telangana Police for the reckless use of the Telangana Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act, 1986 to detain individuals.

“Interference by this Court with orders of detention, routinely issued under the Act, seems to continue unabated. Even after Mallada K. Sri Ram [Mallada K. Sri Ram v. State of Telangana] , in another decision of fairly recent origin in Sk. Nazneen v. State of Telangana [Sk. Nazneen v. State of Telangana,] , this Court set aside the impugned order of detention dated 28-10- 2021 holding that seeking shelter under preventive detention law was not the proper remedy.”, the court observed in Ameena Begum.

Not only this, the court went on to highlight its 2022 Judgment where it noted that “in the last five years, this Court has quashed over five detention orders under the Telangana Act of 1986 for inter alia incorrectly applying the standard for maintenance of public order and relying on stale materials while passing the orders of detention. At least ten detention orders under the Telangana Act of 1986 have been set aside by the High Court of Telangana in the last one year itself. These numbers evince a callous exercise of the exceptional power of preventive detention by the detaining authorities and the respondent-state. We direct the respondents to take stock of challenges to detention orders pending before the Advisory Board, High Court and Supreme Court and evaluate the fairness of the detention order against lawful standards.”

While dealing with the same set of incidents, the Supreme Court in the present case expressed hope the Telangana State wouldn't pass detention order without application of mind.

"We hope that the State of Telangana does not give any good reason once again to this Court to observe anything further."

Also from the judgment- Inability Of State Police To Tackle Law & Order No Excuse To Invoke Preventive Detention : Supreme Court

Case Title: NENAVATH BUJJI ETC. VERSUS THE STATE OF TELANGANA AND ORS

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 253

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