SRINAGAR: Holding that preventive detention cannot be sustained on unexplained administrative delays, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has quashed the detention of a Srinagar man booked under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, directing his immediate release from jail.
Justice Rahul Bharti, while allowing a habeas corpus petition filed by Adnan Rasool Ganie, ruled that the detention order issued by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, suffered from a fundamental legal flaw as the authorities failed to explain why they took more than four months to act on the police dossier recommending preventive detention.
The petitioner had been under preventive detention since July 24, 2025, pursuant to an order issued on July 21, 2025, under Section 3 of the PIT-NDPS Act. Challenging his detention before the High Court, Ganie argued that the order was arbitrary and liable to be set aside.
Examining the record, the court found that the detention was primarily founded on Ganie’s alleged involvement in FIR No. 58/2022 registered at Police Station Parimpora. The recommendation for his detention had been made by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, through a dossier dated March 4, 2025, portraying him as a person likely to continue his alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
Justice Bharti observed that despite receiving the dossier in early March, the Divisional Commissioner waited until July 21 to issue the detention order without placing any explanation on record for the delay. The court held that such inaction struck at the very rationale of preventive detention, which is intended to prevent an imminent threat rather than punish a past act.
“The unexplained time gap renders the very basis of the petitioner’s preventive detention a mockery of the PIT NDPS Act,” the court observed, adding that the legislation is designed to address immediate preventive concerns and not to justify delayed executive action.
The judgment also noted that although the petitioner was nearing completion of the one-year detention period prescribed under the Act, he had continued to pursue his constitutional remedy instead of allowing the petition to become infructuous. The court said such faith in judicial review deserved an adjudication on merits.
Consequently, the High Court declared both the detention order dated July 21, 2025, and its subsequent confirmation by the Jammu and Kashmir Government as illegal and quashed them. It directed the Superintendent of the concerned jail to release Ganie forthwith, provided he is not required in any other criminal case.
The ruling reiterates the settled legal principle that preventive detention, being an exceptional measure curtailing personal liberty, must strictly satisfy constitutional and statutory safeguards, and any unexplained delay between the perceived threat and the detention order can render such action legally unsustainable.
