News Highlight
According to the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), preventive detentions in 2021 saw a rise compared with the year before.
Key Takeaway
- Preventive detentions in 2021 saw a rise of over 23.7% compared to the year before, with over 1.1 lakh people being placed under preventive detention.
- Of these, 483 were detentions under the National Security Act, of which almost half (241) were either in custody or still detained as of the end of 2021.
- A total of over 24,500 people placed under preventive detention were either in custody or still detained as of the end of last year — the highest since 2017 when the NCRB started recording this data.
Concept of Preventive Detention
- There are two types of detention: punitive and preventive.
Preventive detention
- It is basically detention without trial in order to prevent a person from committing a crime.
- In other words, preventive detention refers to taking into custody an individual who has not committed a crime yet but the authorities believe him to be a threat to law and order.
Punitive detention
- It is used to punish a person for an offence committed after a court trial and conviction.
Constitutional Provisions
- Article 22:
- The second part of Article 22 protects people who have been arrested or detained under a preventive detention law.
- This protection is available to both citizens and aliens.
Features of detention provision
- A person’s detention cannot be extended beyond three months unless the advisory board reports sufficient cause for such an extension. The board will be made up of high court judges.
- The person being detained should be informed of the reasons for his or her detention. However, facts deemed to be in the public interest must not be disclosed.
- The person detained should be given the opportunity to appeal against the detention order.
The 44th Amendment Act of 1978
- The 44th Amendment Act of 1978 reduced the period of detention without obtaining an advisory board’s opinion from three to two months.
- However, because this provision has not yet been implemented, the original three-month period remains in effect.
Supreme Court on Preventive Detention
- AK Gopalan v. State of Madras:
- The first case to come before the Supreme Court was AK Gopalan v. the State of Madras, in which the Court upheld the validity of the Preventive Detention Act.
- Moreover, the Court also held that Article 22 of the Constitution also provides exhaustive procedural safeguards with respect to preventive detention.
- Therefore, the Court said that fundamental rights were not violated by the impugned act because it met all the procedural safeguards that are provided in Article 22(5).
- Ram Manohar Lohia v. the State of Bihar
- The Supreme Court attempted to distinguish between the concepts of “security of the state,” “public order,” and “law and order.”
National Crime Records Bureau
- The NCRB was set up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
- It was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the Ministry of Home Affairs’s Task Force (1985).
- NCRB brings out the annual comprehensive statistics of crime across the country (‘Crime in India’ report).
- Having been published in 1953, the report serves as a crucial tool in understanding the law and order situation across the country.
- Its publications include:
- Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India
- Prison Statistics India
- Fingerprints in India
- Report on missing women and children in India
Pic Courtesy: Istock
Content Source: The Hindu