With great power comes great responsibility, says Bombay HC

With great power comes great responsibility the Bombay High Court said while coming down heavily on the district magistrate of Dadra and Nagar Haveli for passing detention orders in a casual and mechanical manner and without application of mind reported news agency PTIAccording to PTI a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh in an order passed on April 18 a copy of which was made available on Thursday quashed three orders of November 2022 passed by the magistrate placing three persons under preventive detentionWith great power comes great responsibility Thus greater the power greater the responsibility the court said noting that the detention orders were passed in a very casual and cavalier manner and reflect complete nonapplication of mind reported PTIWhile passing detention orders it is the bounden duty of the authority to act responsibly and with circumspection and in accordance with law since under the detention law a person is deprived of his or her personal liberty the high court said in its orderThe bench noted that the detenues were in custody since November 2022 and this was nothing but travesty of justiceThe court directed the Union Territory of Daman and Diu to pay a sum of Rs 20000 as costs to each of the detenue within four weeks and said it hopes and trusts that steps would be taken to conduct a workshop for the officers dealing with detention lawsThe high court passed its order on two petitions challenging orders passed by the district magistrate of Dadra and Nagar Haveli under the Gujarat Prevention of AntiSocial Activities ActOne petition was filed by an advocate Vishal Shrimali against whom a detention order was passed and the second was filed by one Sangeeta Rathod challenging the detention orders passed against her son and husbandBoth the petitions claimed that the detenues were social activists who had raised their voice against illegal activities as a result of which false cases were filed against them On the basis of these false cases the detention order was passed the pleas saidWe find that the detention orders were passed in a very mechanical and cavalier manner The case in hand is nothing but an abuse of the law of preventive detention the HC said while quashing the detention ordersThe bench in its order noted that preventive detention is an anticipatory measure and that the object of the law of preventive detention is not punitive but only preventiveIt is resorted to only when the executive is convinced that detention is warranted to prevent the detenue person detained from acting in illegal acts the high court saidUnder the detention law a persons greatest of human freedoms ie personal liberty is deprived and hence it is imperative that the laws of preventive detention are strictly construed and a meticulous compliance with the procedural safeguard however technical is mandatory it saidThe bench referred to quotes by several authors on liberty being one of the most essential requirements of the modern man and said that courts have always regarded personal liberty as the most precious possession of mankind and have shown no tolerance to illegal detentionWhere personal liberty is concerned it is not permissible to take a generous view of the lapses and condone the same In cases of preventive detention strict adherenceobservance of procedural safeguards is mandated so that liberty of a person is not compromised by arbitrary exercise of power HC said in its orderWith inputs from PTI