Order the release of Javed Siddiqui, who had been arrested on July 10 for allegedly participating in a mob attack against Dalits in UP’s Jaunpur, the court said: “Where the law confers extraordinary power on the executive power to detain a person without recourse to the ordinary law of the land, and to be tried by the courts, such law must be strictly interpreted and the executive must exercise power with extreme care. ”
The verdict came in response to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Siddiqui challenging his detention under the NSA.
“The history of personal freedom is to a large extent the history of the insistence on the observance of procedural guarantees. The law of preventive detention is not punitive, but only preventive, (and) greatly affects the personal freedom of (a ) individual, enshrined in Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India … Therefore, the authority in question has the obligation to issue an arrest warrant according to the established procedure by law and guarantee that constitutional guarantees have been respected, “the division court of Judges Pritinker Diwaker and Pradeep Kumar Srivastava said.
The case against Siddiqui was registered on June 9, when a fight involving children turned into a communal confrontation in Bhadethi Jaunpur village. More than a dozen Dalits-owned huts were set ablaze by a mob of 80 people, which police say included Siddiqui. He was also accused of uttering caste insults.
Siddiqui’s arrest was based on an arrest warrant issued by the Jaunpur DM under Section 3 (2) of the NSA.
The court criticized the administration for failing to organize legal representation of the accused before the NSA advisory board in Lucknow within the stipulated time. “… There was complete inaction on his part … This inaction on the part of the authorities certainly resulted in the deprivation of the petitioner’s right (to a hearing),” he said.
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