The failure of a case worker to place before the Home Department representation from a person detained under ‘Goonda Act’ has resulted in the High Court of Karnataka not only ordering release of a rowdy sheeter but also issuing guidelines to prevent such lapse in handling representations by detenu after confirmation of detention.
The court held that a person detained under the provisions of the Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum-Grabbers and Video or Audio pirates Act, 1985 (commonly known as Goonda Act) has the right to submit representation seeking revocation and modification of detention under Section 14 of the Act even after confirmation of his detention as per the Act.
When a detained person submits representation to the prison authorities, the court said the same should be transmitted to the authorities at an earliest possible time and use of technology has to be underlined for such purposes as the representations can be even be scanned or sent in any other instantaneous mode by the jail authorities.
A Division Bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar issued the directions while ordering release of Rizwan Pasha, whose name was included in three rowdy sheets and was detained in September 2020 for posing a threat to public peace and tranquillity due to his criminal activities. Rizwan had questioned continuation of detention on the ground that his representation submitted on January 12, 2021, was not considered by the government.
The Bench held that non-consideration of representation, though it was not submitted before the authority concerned by the case worker, amounts to violation of the rights of the detenu under the Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.
Though the government claimed that Rizwan had not at all submitted representation, it was found from the records that his representation sent by the prison authorities was lying with a case worker after being received in the tappal section of Vidhana Soudha, and was traced only in June 2021 after court sought records.
Stating that a case-worker entrusted with the file of a particular detenu is duty bound to put up the representation immediately before the concerned authority, the Bench said that Government has to devise a system or channel to ensure that such representations reach concerned authority in expeditious manner. The Bench directed the government to issue guidelines based on the court’s directions to the prison and the Home Department on dealing with the representations by the detained persons under ‘Goonda Act’.
