The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with a Madras High Court order quashing the preventive detention of ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru, PMK leader, for his hate speech made in April 2013.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman dismissed a special leave petition filed by Tamil Nadu against the order dated December 4, 2013.
Appearing for the State, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar assailed the order. However, the CJI told the SG “even if there is slightest non application of mind on passing the detention order, the benefit must go to the detenu.”
In its SLP, the State said due to the hate speech of Mr. Guru on April 25, 2013, there were widespread violence and riots by the followers of PMK who damaged the public property and set fire to the transport buses. Therefore the sponsoring authority forwarded all the relevant documents to the detaining authority seeking an order of detention.
The High Court erroneously allowed the Habeas Corpus Petitions and set aside the detention order passed against Guru and directed him to be set at liberty.
The High Court was erroneous in setting aside the detention order passed by the detaining authority on the ground that the same was passed on surmises and no materials were available to show that the violence was due to the hate speech of the detenu.
Refuting this finding, the State said the provocation led to the destruction of 40 buses and other vehicles, and prayed for quashing the High Court order.
