Sarabjeet Singh Mokha v. The District Magistrate, Jabalpur
Background
The appellant, a hospital director in Jabalpur, was arrested after police alleged he procured and administered fake Remdesivir injections to Covid-19 patients during the pandemic. Based on this, the District Magistrate detained him under the preventive-detention provisions of the National Security Act, 1980, even though he had already been booked under ordinary criminal law. He made a representation against his detention, but the Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the detention and dismissed his challenge, after which he appealed to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and quashed the detention order and its subsequent extensions. It held that Article 22(5) of the Constitution gives every detenu the right to have a representation against detention considered "as soon as may be" and independently of any reference to the Advisory Board, and the State Government here took almost two months to decide the appellant's representation without any explanation. Separately, the Court found that neither the Central nor State Government could prove that the rejection of the representation was ever actually communicated to the appellant. Either defect alone was enough to invalidate the detention, so the Court did not need to examine the other grounds (such as reliance on a stale, already-acquitted past case) that were argued.
Lesson Learnt
When the government detains someone without trial under preventive-detention laws, it must decide and promptly communicate the outcome of the detainee's representation without undue delay: unexplained delay or non-communication by itself is enough to make the detention illegal, regardless of how serious the underlying allegations are.