A person cannot be detained on the basis of “stale and irrelevant” grounds, the Supreme Court has held in a judgment.
A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hrishikesh Roy said detaining a person on “stale incidents” will be akin to punishing him for a crime without trial.
Assessing past conduct
A court can set aside a detaining order if it is based on stale and irrelevant grounds.
“A live and proximate link must exist between the past conduct of a person and the imperative need to detain him,” Justice Chandrachud referred to a precedent in the 23-page judgment.
The case concerned an appeal by a man, Khaja Bilal Ahmed, who was detained as a “goonda” under the Telangana Offenders Act of 1986. The apex court quashed the detention order, saying there is no proximate link between his past and the immediate need to detain him.
“A detention order which is founded on stale incidents, must be regarded as an order of punishment for a crime, passed without a trial, though purporting to be an order of preventive detention. The essential concept of preventive detention is that the detention of a person is not to punish him for something he has done but to prevent him from doing it,” the recent judgment said.
Incidents believed to have taken place nine to 14 years earlier cannot be a basis for the detaining authority to conclude that the person is engaging or making preparations for committing an illegal act, the Supreme Court said.
