Calls Action Vitiated, Cites 4 Grounds For Release
Social activist Pranab Doley
Guwahati: Gauhati high court on Friday quashed social activist Pranab Doley’s preventive detention under the National Security Act (NSA), citing four broad grounds.A division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Susmita Phukan Khaund directed that Doley “shall be released and set at liberty forthwith from his preventive detention”.The court held that the detention order was “vitiated and not sustainable on facts and in law”. It quashed the order issued by Assam govt on July 30 under Section 3(2) of the NSA and the corresponding grounds of detention.“The detaining authority has not applied its mind as to whether or not the ordinary laws of the country were insufficient to deal with the activities of the petitioner. The detention of the petitioner is found to be vitiated on four broad reasons,” the court said.One ground was the authorities’ failure to disclose the status of 13 criminal cases cited against Doley. The court noted that he was acquitted in nine cases and discharged in one, while proceedings in the remaining cases were stayed by the high court, pending investigation or at the evidence stage.“The lack of complete and full disclosure regarding the status of criminal cases is found to vitiate the detention order on account of malice in law,” the court observed.The bench said chargesheets in 11 cases and other investigation materials relied upon by the authorities were not supplied to Doley, limiting his right to make an effective representation. It described allegations of road blockades and damage to public property as “vague and bereft of material particulars”.The court further took note of the authorities’ failure to consider Doley’s representation dated Aug 10. He had initially been denied access to family members, friends and legal counsel. After his father approached the high court, it directed jail authorities on Aug 7 to facilitate such meetings. Doley met his counsel on Aug 8 and submitted the representation on Aug 10.“Non-disposal of the representation of Aug 10, submitted by the petitioner, is held to be fatal to the continued preventive detention of the petitioner,” the bench observed.The court also rejected Doley’s foreign visits and remittances as grounds for detention, saying the authorities had not shown any anti-India activity or a live link between the transactions and his protest activities.“Repetitive foreign visit, by itself, is not an act which would warrant preventive detention of a person and curtail his fundamental right to visit a country of his choice,” it observed.The court said the delay in issuing the detention order had snapped the “live and proximate link” between the alleged prejudicial activities and the purpose of detention.“The court is of the considered opinion that the said four reasons are sufficient to hold that the impugned order of preventive detention of the petitioner is vitiated and not sustainable on facts and in law,” the judgment read.Doley was detained under NSA on July 30, 2026, a day after a sessions court in Golaghat granted him bail on July 29, 2026, following his initial arrest on July 12, 2026, during protests against a luxury hotel project near Kaziranga National Park.
