Bombay High Court Rules in Preventive Detention in a recent Judgement

Legal News by - ZEBA KHAN (This News was written by her during her Internship)

In a recent judgement on 17th July, 2024 the Bombay high court rules in the case of Mahesh Ramdas Jejurkar vs Union of India & Ors. This case involves a criminal writ petition filed by Mahesh Ramdas Jejurkar, raising critical issues about his detention and ill treatment during his imprisonment.

In this case, the petitioner, Mahesh Ramdas Jejurkar, was detained by the Joint Secretary to the Government of India (detaining authority) under the provisions of Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act,1974 (COFEPOSA Act) in October 2023. To safeguard the petitioner for committing the offence repeatedly.

The petitioner, Mahesh Jejurkar, represented by Aisha Ansari, challenged about his medical treatments while in the custody at Taloja Central Jail, Navi Mumbai, concerning about the rights of the detainee. By filing a writ petition of Habeas Corpus for preventing detention of the detainee.

The learned council from the Detaining Authority, represented by APP J.P. Yagnik and Advocate Sandesh Patil and others, argued that it was necessary to detain the petitioner, with a view to prevent him from smuggling of goods, abetting the smuggling, and engaging in transporting or concealing or keeping the smuggled goods in future. After the order was passed the detenu was communicated all the grounds of detention which contained the report which was forwarded by the Sponsoring Authority i.e. the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mumbai Zonal Unit.

The Detaining Authority after examining the materials came to the conclusion that the Detenu was a habitual offender and his confessions and corroborative statements and all the evidences brought sufficient materials that he was the key player in the smuggling of Areca nuts from Dubai in India. As in a systematic manner he was coordinating and arranging conjunction with an overseas entity.

In the initial petitions by Jejurkar, was aimed to provide adequate medical treatment for his deteriorating health. In the previous hearings, the court has ordered the prison authorities to provide his medical treatment from Sir. J.J. Hospital in Mumbai. These orders were a part of ongoing hearings to provide humane treatment to the detainees to safeguard their health rights.

During the recent hearing on 17th July, the court re-evaluate the previous directives. The detaining authorities provided his medical reports which detailed about the medical care Jejurkar has received. The court acknowledged that all the preventive steps were taken to ensure Jejurkar’s health needs were addressed, it focused on the ongoing and consistent medical follow-up.

In the Judgement ruled by a Division Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande held that it is the duty of the executives to exercise the power of preventive detention with extreme care and any casual treatment can lead to deprival of fundamental rights of the detainee as he has very limited rights to challenge to such an order to safeguard their fundamental rights and his freedom and liberty.

They also added that the exercise of the power to detain a person preventively shall be balanced against the injustice to a person, who has been detained, hence necessary safeguard measures shall be taken as contemplated under Article 22 which also includes the right to choose representative. For making effective representation, it is necessary that the detenu is able to understand the grounds on which he has been detained and it is imperative for the detaining authority to communicate him such grounds.

In my opinion, this Judgement raise critical issues about our prisoner’s conditions in prison, as there are many detainees on trial waiting for justice by suffering ill treatments from the detaining authorities as well as from the other prisoners is a concerning issue in our country. By this Judgement given by the Bombay high court maintains balance between detention and protection of fundamental rights of the detainees. It is crucial to treat the prisoners with preventive detention as they are deprived from their liberty in the custody, it is also+2 necessary to ensure short-circuiting the process of trials by keeping the safeguards available to the detainees under Article 22 of the Constitution.

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