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New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on Monday quashed the detention order of Javed Siddiqui under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) on the grounds that the authorities did not present his petition report before the advisory board on time.

According to a report in the Indian Express, a division bench of Justice Pradeep Kumar Srivastava and Justice Printinker Diwaker quashed the detention order on a habeas corpus plea by Siddiqui and observed that a law such as the NSA had to be exercised by the executive with extreme care.

Where the law confers extraordinary power on the executive to detain a person without recourse to the ordinary law of the land and to trial by courts, such a law has to be strictly construed and the executive must exercise the power with extreme care, the court said and noted that the executive was under obligation to pass detention order according to procedure established by law.

The court also ordered the forthwith release of Siddiqui, if he was not required in any other case.

The history of personal liberty is largely the history of insistence on observation of the procedural safeguards. The law of preventive detention, though is not punitive, but only preventive, heavily affects the personal liberty of individual enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and, therefore, the Authority is under obligation to pass detention order according to procedure established by law and will ensure that the constitutional safeguards have been followed, the high court observed.

Siddiqui was arrested earlier this year in June and booked under for arson and rioting after a number houses belonging to people from the Dalit community had been burnt down at Bhadethi village in the Sarai Khwaja locality of Jaunpur.

As per the courts order, the detention order against Siddiqui was passed on July 10 and the petitioner gave his representation July 20. The detention order for Siddiqui was approved on July 21, 2020. It is evident that the representation so given by the petitioner (Siddique) was well within the prescribed period of 12 days, the court said and noted that Siddiquis representation was rejected on August 14, 2020, after the advisory board had already made the recommendation for approval of the detention order on August 12.

Also read: UP is Primarily Using the National Security Act Against Those Accused of Cow Slaughter

The record shows that the representation of the petitioner was not placed before the Advisory Board till 12.08.2020 (August 12) even though the same was filed on 20.07.2020 (July 20). It remained pending with the State Government and after two days from the date the Advisory Board sent the recommendation, the same was rejected, the high court said.

The court also said that the state authority had given no reasonable explanation for the delay in forwarding the petitioners representation and not placing it before the advisory board. It is evident from the record that while extraordinary haste was shown in taking action against the petitioner, the authorities remained reluctant and there was complete inaction on their part causing an unjustified delay in processing the detenues representation against his detention under the NSA, the bench said in its order.

This inaction on the part of the authorities certainly resulted in deprivation on the right of the petitioner of the fair opportunity of hearing and it also resulted in denial of the opportunity of fair hearing to the petitioner as provided under the law. This is not permissible and is in gross violation of established legal and procedural norms and legal and constitutional protection, the Allahabad high court said.

The court said that it was of the opinion that delaying and not placing the representation before the advisory board speaks in volume about the reluctance on the part of opposite parties.

The plea of Covid-19, officials suffering from pandemic, intervening holiday or negligence on the part of an official on account of which he was suspended, are no reason, which could be attributed towards any fault or lapse on the part of the petitioner. Even on the date when the case was fixed before the Advisory Board, the authorities could have placed the representation of the petitioner before the Board. Thus, we find that no reasonable explanation has been given for the delay and not placing the representation before the Board, the high court said.

Reportedly in June, following an alleged brawl among children, over a dozen huts of people from the Dalit community were set ablaze and massive damages were caused to 14 other houses. The FIR registered against Javed Siddiqui accused him of attacking the Bhadethi village slums along with 80 people and indulging in riots and arson there while heaping anti-Dalit abuses on the slum inhabitants.

Siddiqui was later arrested and the Jaunpur district magistrate subsequently on July 10 issued a detention order against him under section 3(2) of the National Security Act.

In his habeas corpus plea, Siddiqui contended that he was not given a fair opportunity to present his case before the UP advisory board, Lucknow to challenge the detention order. He alleged that neither his representation was placed before the advisory board in time nor he was supplied relevant documents about his detention under the NSA.

Earlier this year, in response to the Uttar Pradesh governments repeated instances of invoking the National Security Act against alleged cow slaughter cases, the Allahabad high court raised concerns that the law was being misused to target innocent people.

(With inputs from PTI)

See more here:
Quashing Detention Order, Allahabad HC Asks Govt to Exercise NSA With 'Extreme Care' - The Wire