A three-judge bench of justices Altamas Kabir, Gyan Sudha Misra and J Chelameshwar said a detune under the preventive detention laws like NSA, COFEPOSA etc is not required to be treated in the same manner as a person arrested in connection with the commission of an alleged offence.
"Since clause (5) of Article 22 provides that the grounds for detention are to be served on a detune after his detention, the provisions of Section 3 of the RTI Act, 2005, cannot be applied to cases relating to preventive detention at the pre-execution stage.
"In other words, Section 3 of the RTI Act has to give way to the provisions of Clause (5) of Article 22 of the Constitution," said Justice Kabir, writing the judgement for the bench.
Under Article 22 of the Constitution, the authorities are under an obligation to disclose to a person the reasons for his or her arrest.
"Notwithstanding the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, the State is not under any obligation to provide the grounds of detention to a detune prior to his arrest and detention, notwithstanding the fact that in the cases of Choith Nanikram Harchandai and Suresh Hotwani & Anr, the grounds of detention had been provided to the detune under the RTI Act, 2005, at the pre-execution stage.
"The procedure followed under the RTI Act, in respect of the said writ petitions cannot and should not be treated as a precedent, " the bench said.
The apex court gave the ruling while dismissing a bunch of applications seeking disclosure of information under the RTI Act for detunes at the pre-detention stage. (More)
