Justice Puneet Gupta of J&K High Court Jammu Wing quashed the detention under PSA of Davinder Singh alleged Criminal.
While quashing the dentention order, Justice Puneet Gupta observed that Supreme Court held that elaborate rules of natural justice are excluded either expressly or by necessary implication where procedural provisions are made in the statute or where disclosure, of relevant information to an interested party, would be contrary to the public interest. It was also held that where the police arrests a person and later on enlarges him on bail and steps are taken to prosecute him under code of criminal procedure and FIR is also lodged that may not be a bar to issue order of preventive detention against the said person. It was further held that the order of preventive detention is based on a reasonable prognosis of the future behavior of a person based on his past conduct in the light of the surrounding circumstances. The court is of the considered opinion that the reliance placed by the counsel for the respondents on the observations made in the aforesaid authority is misplaced. The facts in the said case were altogether different and the observations of the court cannot be pressed into service in the present case. The acts of the petitioner mentioned in the impugned order which span over a decade even if disclose the criminal mentality, as submitted by the respondents, the same could not invite the detention order against the petitioner as the said acts of the petitioner are not related to society at large and the alleged acts of the petitioner are already proceeded under ordinary criminal law. With these observations the High Court quashed the detention order. JNF