Preventive detention must meet strict threshold,

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday underscored that the fundamental right to personal liberty cannot be curtailed through arbitrary or routine use of preventive detention laws, stressing that a mere breach of law and order does not automatically equate to a public order threat warranting the invocation of this exceptional measure.

- Utkarsh Anand

A bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan pointed out that preventive detention, being an extraordinary power, must be invoked sparingly and only in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and immediate threat to public order.

"Every instance of breach of peace cannot result in an order of preventive detention. The distinction between whether a case would amount to a threat to public order or could be dealt with by the ordinary machinery of maintaining law and order would have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis," held the bench, underscoring the distinction between the breach of law and order and public order.