KOCHI: Not supplying the documents relied upon for ordering preventive detention under COFEPOSA Act amounts to violation of the detenue’s constitutional right, the Kerala High Court has held while quashing a detention order issued by the Joint Secretary COFEPOSA of Ministry of Finance.
A division bench comprising justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias CP quashed the detention order issued by the joint secretary on August 24, 2021 after considering three petitions (WP-Crl. Nos. 107, 108, and 109 of 2022) challenging the order against three of the accused in a case alleging smuggling of gold bars worth Rs7.16 crores by hiding them in a refrigerator’s compressor.
