New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted time till tomorrow (Thursday) to the Telangana government to release from preventive custody a person who stole five saris.
The court asserted that preventive detention law under which a person can be detained for an year without any trial or bail should be applied only in “rarest of the rare cases.”
“It is a drastic measure. It needs to be applied in rarest of rare cases when there is a serious threat to society,” a bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul told Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, who appeared for Telangana. Ch Eliah, accused of stealing saris, has been in preventive detention since March 19, 2016.
CJI tells TS, it’s a bad practice
Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar did not accept the submission of the Solicitor-General when he justified the preventive detention of the accused, Ch Eliah, as he was an habitual offender.
The CJI said that it would pass adverse orders if it did not take a decision by Thursday on releasing Eliah. Eliah has been under preventive detention since March 19, 2016. He has been accused of habitually stealing saris along with six members of his gang.
Two other gang members are under detention, and four are absconding. Eliah had moved court through his wife Shalini after the High Court turned down his appeal.
The CJI said “You can arrest them and appeal to the court that they should not be granted bail. A person let us assume he is a thief, but still you can’t keep him under preventive detention for one year. We are not inclined to allow you to detain him further... you can’t use preventive detention against such persons. It is a very bad practice.”
Justice Chandrachud said even if he is a “goonda” it does not justify his detention under the preventive detention law.
