After preliminary hearing of the case the court has issued notices to the state government and Surat police.
Is the PASA Act which gives powers to the police to detain and send a person to jail in order to restrain him from any criminal activities, violative of the rights to of a citizen enshrined in the Constitution? Gujarat high court will soon decide on the issue.
One Naresh of Surat, who was sent to jail by the Surat police commissioner under PASA for bootlegging, has filed a petition in the high court challenging the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Act.
After preliminary hearing of the case, a bench of acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala has issued notices to the state government and Surat police to throw light on the issue and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
"The Act infringes upon the right to live as stated in Article 21 of our Constitution. The Act came into effect in 1985 and it is 27 years old. The consequences have changed with passing years and time," said Masoom Shah, counsel for the petitioner.
In the petition, the counsel has said that the notification is ultra vires as it is of 1985 and is still in force and the prevailing circumstances are assumed to be there for ever. "In the light of such glaring abuse of power and arbitrariness, the provision requires to be declared unconstitutional as it fails to contain any minimum time limit of its operation," he said.
The police commissioner of a city area and the district collector of a district can order to detain and send a person to jail under PASA for six months if he or she is repeatedly involved in anti-social activities that can be a threat to the law and order situation. Mostly bootleggers, gamblers and dreaded criminals are sent to jail under PASA.
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