HC orders release of 65 PASA detinues

Some of those released had been arrested as long back as November. The Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Act, 1985, allows detention of habitual offenders without bail for upto six months.

Like in the Goonda and Rowdy Acts of other states, the power to detain is vested with police commissioners (in commissionerate areas) and district magistrates after clearance by a PASA review committee of the Home Department. After failing to get reprieve from the committee, the 65 detainees had moved the court challenging their arrest.

Among the grounds on which they challenged their detention were the long gap between the day the last offense was registered and the day the detention was ordered. Also, some of the detainees were already in police or judicial custody when PASA was invoked against them.

The court found that the Home Department failed to file replies in court justifying the detention and ordered their release from various jails across the state.