Gujarat High Court has pre-emptively stalled the execution of detention order under Prevention of Anti- Social Activities (PASA) Act while observing that there has been a rampant misuse of the law. The bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay observed that it was a private dispute between the parties but the police had still filed the FIR and deemed the petitioner, Rohitbhai Luni, to be a ‘dangerous person’ under PASA and intended to detain him.
The counsel for the petitioner, Shakeel Kureshi submitted that the dispute is private in nature and under no circumstances can it be brought under definition of “dangerous person” under PASA. The petitioner sought protection from detention under PASA.
The court perused the complaint and observed that it was a private dispute between the parties. The court further stated that the complainant had resorted to arm twisting with the aid of the police who had readily filed the FIR.
The court observed, “Such tactics need to be nipped in the bud. Rampant misuse of PASA is noticed by this court. This is one of such examples, where it is the police authorities who take upon such responsibility to settle the financial transaction / disputes between the parties, with the aid / threat of PASA.”
The court held that even if the petitioner may or may not be protected in the crimes registered under IPC, he cannot be termed as a dangerous person under PASA.
The court’s attention was also brought to another case where a woman was forced to remain in jail for two months after being detained under PASA after which the court set aside the detention order in February.
The detaining authority had not passed any detention order as yet, but the authority had submitted that it did intend to send the proposal to detain the petitioner under PASA. Thus, the court directed that if any such detention order is passed against the petitioner on the basis of this FIR, the same shall not be executed for period of one month from the date of service.
In August 2020 as well the Gujarat High Court had reprimanded the police as they had deemed the petitioner to be a ‘dangerous person’ under PASA for not wearing a mask and for having an altercation with the police.
The complete order may be read here:
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