The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has struck down a preventive detention order issued under the Public Safety Act against a Kathua resident accused in cases linked to bovine smuggling, holding that the State failed to justify such an extreme measure.
The administration had argued that the man’s repeated involvement in cattle transportation cases posed a risk of communal unrest. But the Court found that this claim rested on assertion rather than evidence.
Justice Javed Iqbal Wani noted that the detention record did not point to a single incident where the alleged activities had actually disturbed communal harmony or threatened public order. Mere registration of cases under animal protection laws, the Court observed, could not automatically be elevated to a public order problem warranting preventive detention.
The judgment underscored that preventive custody is not meant to substitute ordinary criminal law. For such detention to survive, there must be a clear, immediate, and proximate link between the alleged conduct and a real threat to public order. That link, the Court found, was missing.
The Court also took exception to the unexplained delay in issuing and executing the detention order, holding that such lapses further weakened the State’s case.
Relying on settled principles laid down by the Supreme Court on preventive detention, the High Court concluded that the order could not be sustained. The detention was accordingly quashed, and the authorities were directed to release the detainee forthwith.
The ruling reinforces a consistent judicial message: preventive detention cannot rest on speculation or generalized fears—it must be backed by concrete material showing an imminent threat to public order.
