State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah has written to the Director General of Police (DGP) requesting him to instruct the Superintendents of Police (SPs) to not recommend the invocation of the preventive detention laws at the drop of a hat since most of the detention orders get quashed by the Madras High Court.
In a communication addressed to the DGP, the SPP said, the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activites of Bootleggers, Cyber Law Offenders, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Sexual Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act of 1982 could be invoked only in case of threat to public order.
However, of late, it has been found that the High Court had been quashing the preventive detention orders passed by the Collectors, on the basis of the recommendation made by police officers, because of gross misuse of the law in trifling cases too without there being any threat to the public at large, the SPP said.
Requesting the DGP to sensitise his subordinates to the difference between maintaining law and order and acts that affect public order, the SPP said, the High Court has been repeatedly emphasising that the exceptional power of preventive detention must be exercised with prudence only in exceptional cases since it encroaches upon the liberty of an individual.
