The Supreme Court has held that advisory boards under draconian preventive detention laws should not behave like mere “rubber-stamping authorities” for the government, but act as safety valves which stand between the capricious use of power by the state and the right to personal liberty.
“An advisory board must consider whether the detention is necessary not just in the eyes of the detaining authority but also in the eyes of law,” a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra observed in a recent judgment.
Article 22 of the Constitution makes it mandatory for preventive detention laws to form advisory boards consisting of persons qualified to be High Court judges.
