New Delhi:The Supreme Court has ruled the constitutional scheme that a person cannot be kept in preventive detention beyond a period of three months is not applicable if an advisory board has confirmed there is sufficient cause for such detention.
In an important verdict, the top court also held the state government was not required to review its orders of detention every three months after it has passed the confirmatory order following the report of the advisory board.
Article 22(4) of the Constitution deals with protection against arrest and detention in certain cases and says “No law providing for preventive detention shall authorise the detention of a person for a longer period than three months unless (a) an Advisory Board consisting of persons who are, or have been, or are qualified to be appointed as, Judges of a High Court has reported before the expiration of the said period of three months that there is in its opinion sufficient cause for such detention.”
“The period of three months stipulated in Article 22(4)(a) of the Constitution is relatable to the initial period of detention up to the stage of receipt of report of the Advisory Board and does not have any bearing on the period of detention, which is continued subsequent to the confirmatory order being passed by the State Government on receipt of the report of the Advisory Board,” a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said in its 75-page judgement.
Justice Pardiwala, writing the judgement, said the continuation of the detention pursuant to the confirmatory order passed by the state government need not also specify the period of detention and neither it is restricted to a period of three months only. “If any period is specified in the confirmatory order, then the period of detention would be upto such period, if no period is specified, then it would be for a maximum period of twelve months from the date of detention.
The state government, in our view, need not review the orders of detention every three months after it has passed the confirmatory order,” it held.
The verdict came on an appeal by Pesala Nookaraju who was detained on August 25, 2022 for indulging in bootlegging activities under the Andhra Pradesh Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Boot-leggers, Dacoits, Drug Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Land Grabbers Act, 1986. The Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed his plea against the detention order passed by the district magistrate of Kakinada. The top court also dismissed the plea, holding that once the advisory board has confirmed the detention, he can be kept in preventive custody for a period of 12 months.