Srinagar, July 6: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed a preventive detention order issued under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, holding that the unexplained delay in acting on the police dossier rendered the detention legally unsustainable.
Justice Rahul Bharti, while allowing a habeas corpus petition, set aside the detention order dated September 26, 2025, as well as the Government’s approval order, and directed the immediate release of the detenue from Central Jail Kot Bhalwal.
The Court observed that the detention dossier was submitted by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Sopore, on August 27, 2025, but the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, took over a month to pass the detention order. The judgment noted that neither the detention order, the grounds of detention, nor the response filed by the authorities offered any explanation for the delay, despite claims that the detenue was a continuing threat due to alleged involvement in narcotics trafficking.
Describing the delay as fatal to the detention proceedings, the Court ruled that the absence of prompt action defeated the very purpose of preventive detention and was sufficient to invalidate the order.
The High Court further noted that the detenue had already secured bail in the latest NDPS case and that the authorities failed to place any credible or fresh material on record to demonstrate that he had resumed illegal activities after his release. Instead, the detention was primarily based on a routine verification report, which the Court found inadequate to justify curtailing personal liberty.
In a significant observation, Justice Rahul Bharti cautioned that accepting vague and unsupported references as sufficient grounds for preventive detention would seriously undermine the constitutional guarantee of personal liberty, exposing citizens to arbitrary deprivation of freedom.
Holding that the detention appeared to be punitive rather than genuinely preventive, the High Court quashed both the preventive detention order and the Government’s approval, directing the authorities to release the detenue forthwith and restore his personal liberty.(KNC)
