In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court has held that the date of preventive detention should also be counted while calculating the statutory period of five days within which the grounds for the detention order must be communicated to the detainee failing which the order would not survive.
Justices M. Sundar and R. Sakthivel passed the ruling while quashing a preventive detention order passed by the Tambaram Commissioner of Police under the category of ‘sexual offender’ on August 30, 2022 against R. Nishanth, 32, who had been booked in a rape case by the Selaiyur all women police.
Section 8(1) of the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Cyber law offenders, Drug offenders, Forest offenders, Goondas, Immoral traffic offenders, Sand-offenders, Sexual-offenders, Slum-grabbers and Video Pirates Act of 1982 requires the grounds for detention order to be served within five days.
