Person’s liberty can’t be curtailed for joining political rally that turned violent: Maha HC

Mumbai: Placing a person under preventive detention merely because he participated in a political rally that turned violent is a violation of fundamental rights, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC said, noting that curtailing an individual’s liberty cannot be justified.

A division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Rohit Joshi quashed the 2024 orders of a magistrate court and the state government that placed a 20-year-old student under preventive detention based on two FIRs lodged against him for participating in an agitation for Martaha quota in 2023.

The bench, in its order dated January 14, noted that the said FIRs were undisputedly registered in relation to a protest in support of the Maratha reservation. “It appears that the petitioner (Nikhil Ranjwan) was part of a political rally which took an ugly violent turn,” the bench said. Pointing out that over 600 persons had participated in the rally and police identified 50 persons, the bench said that filing a preventive detention order based on two FIRs was a “drastic action”.

“There can be absolutely no justification for curtailing the liberty of an individual merely on the ground of participation in a political rally, although the same may have taken an ugly violent turn,” the high court said, adding that no claim was made that the petitioner was the one who had arranged the rally/agitation. The bench said that it was quite possible that some wrong was committed by the petitioner in the heat of the moment when the protest turned violent.

“However, that by itself, cannot be a ground to curtail his liberty by placing him under preventive detention,” it said. The HC stated the “action of preventive detention” has resulted in the violation of the fundamental right of life and personal liberty of the petitioner as the order has been passed without following

process of law.