GUWAHATI: The Gauhati high court has directed the Assam government to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to a man who was held under preventive detention for eight months.
The man kept under preventive detention for as many as eight months as against the stipulated period of three months, Live Law reported.
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The direction was passed by a division bench of chief justice Sandeep Mehta and justice Mitali Thakuria of the Gauhati high court in Assam.
The Gauhati high court passed the directive while hearing a plea filed by the sister of Sukumar Das, who was kept in detention since August 24, 2022.
He was held under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.
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“The situation in the case at hand is alarming, to say the least, because the detenu [Sukumar Das] has been kept behind bars for a period of more than eight months without the initial detention order being confirmed,” the Gauhati high court in Assam said.
“Every moment of custody of the detenu beyond the period of three months…amounts to illegal detention pure and simple.”
The Gauhati high court also directed the Assam state legal services authority to get a report from all prisons in Assam on the status of those who have been detained under preventive detention laws.
The Gauhati high court has asked the Assam state legal services authority to take “remedial measures” if similar cases are detected.
Preventive detention allows the government to detain individuals before they have committed an offence.