Faculty Seminar | Preventive Detention in Karnataka

Prof. Mrinal Satish and Anushka Pandey will present a paper titled “Preventive Detention in Karnataka”. Pranav Verma will be the discussant.

Abstract

Of all the coercive powers available to the State, preventive detention remains the most drastic infringement of an individual’s liberty, given that it allows States to detain individuals in the present on the basis of a suspicion of future public harm. These powers were introduced into the Indian criminal justice system by the British to control both crime as well as dissent – but the post-colonial Indian State not only retained them but in fact expanded their scope. Presently, numerous Indian States, including Karnataka, have enacted “Goondas Acts.” These legislations give law enforcement agencies wide powers to preventively detain individuals based on an assessment of their “dangerousness.” Considering the wide range of offences mentioned in the Karnataka Goondas Act and a paucity of publicly available information regarding the number and nature of detentions in Karnataka, a study detailing the exact manner in which the preventive detention law is being used in the State of Karnataka was thought to be necessary. Through this study, our attempt  is to present a more well defined picture of the state of preventive detentions in Karnataka, both in terms of the numbers as well as narratives that help us make sense of those numbers. In the course of the study, we also discovered that the police in Karnataka use Chapter VIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) which deals with “Security for keeping the peace and for good behaviour” for preventive policing purposes. Hence, we also examine Chapter VIII of the CrPC. to analyze its use in preventive policing.