The Bombay High Court’s Goa Bench has ordered the immediate release of seven people detained by police during protests against the Election Commission of India (ECI) at Azad Maidan in Panaji, observing that their detention appeared unauthorised in the absence of prohibitory orders.
A division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit S Jamsandekar passed the order during a special Sunday hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed by advocate Malisa Zemira Simoes.
The Court questioned the legal basis for the detentions, noting that no prohibitory order under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) had been issued.
“In the absence of prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS,” the Bench observed, the detention might not have been authorised.
Police cite oral instructions from Executive Magistrate
The petition concerned Afreen Shaikh, Jack Sukhija, Bupesh Bind, Aditya Parulekar, Listan Noronha, Shamino Fernandes and Milind Rane. According to the plea, the seven were forcibly taken from Azad Maidan and held at Pernem Police Station without formal prohibitory orders or stated reasons for their detention.
Police officials from Panaji and Pernem informed the Court that the North Goa Collector had rejected the group’s application to hold a public gathering on October 9.
They further submitted that Executive Magistrate Dattaprasad Toraskar, who was present at the location, had orally instructed police to detain the group after they allegedly entered Azad Maidan.
The Bench, however, expressed concern over whether the detention was legally authorised in the absence of a prohibitory order.
Phones to be returned; medical check-ups permitted
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioners gave an undertaking that the seven individuals would not stage a protest at Azad Maidan overnight.
Following this assurance, the Court directed the authorities to release them immediately.
The Bench also ordered the return of their mobile phones and allowed them to undergo medical examinations at Goa Medical College in Bambolim, if they wished to do so.
Senior advocate Norma Alvares appeared for the petitioners alongside advocates Om D’Costa and Mayank Suri. Additional Public Prosecutor Pravin Faldessai represented the State of Goa.
The ruling came amid protests targeting the ECI, with the Court examining the legality of the detention rather than the merits of the demonstrators’ grievances.