Srinagar: Justice Sanjeev Kumar while quashing detention order of Ghulam Mohammad Tantray, observed that recourse to normal legal procedure would be time consuming and would not be an effective deterrent to prevent the detenu from indulging in further prejudicial activities in the business of spurious seeds, affecting maintenance of public order, and that there was no other option except to invoke the provisions of the preventive detention Act as an extreme measure to insulate.
No doubt the offences alleged to have been committed by detenu are such as to attract punishment under the prevailing laws but that has to be done under the said prevalent laws and taking recourse to preventive detention laws would not be warranted.
Preventive detention involves detaining of a person without trial in order to prevent him from committing certain types of offences. But such detention cannot be made a substitute for the ordinary law and absolve the investigating authorities of their normal functions of investigating crimes which the detenu may have committed. After all, preventive detention cannot be used as an instrument to keep a person in perpetual custody without trial.
With these observations Justice Sanjeev Kumar quashed the detention order no.94/DMB/PSA/2017 dated 31.08.2017, passed by District Magistrate, Baramulla, including extension orders passed vide Government order no.HOME/PB-V/2256 of 2017 dated 30.11.2017 and Government order no.Home/PB-V/236 of 2018 dated 02.03.2018 and directed to release the detenu, namely, Gh Mohd Tantary son of Abdul Salam Tantary resident of Behrampora Rafiabad District Baramulla, forthwith, provided he is not required in any other case.