Bombay High Court Declares Jalgaon Labourer’s Preventive Detention Illegal, Orders Rs 2 Lakh

In a landmark ruling, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has struck down the preventive detention of 20-year-old Jalgaon labourer Dikshant alias Dadu Devidas Sapkale, terming his year-long incarceration illegal and unconstitutional. The court directed the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation, to be recovered from the salary of the Jalgaon District Magistrate who issued the detention order.

Sapkale had been detained under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act on July 18, 2024, despite already being in judicial custody for a separate criminal case. Shockingly, the preventive detention order was not served until May 27, 2025, nearly 11 months later, at which point he was released on bail and immediately re-arrested.

Advocate Harshal Randhir, representing Sapkale, argued that the delay in serving the detention order and executing it after bail constituted a blatant abuse of legal process.

The division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Hiten S Venegavkar emphasised that preventive detention is an exceptional measure that intrudes upon personal liberty and must strictly adhere to constitutional safeguards.

“The law does not authorise the detaining authority to sit over the execution of an order at its pleasure,” the bench stated. The court slammed the authorities for keeping the order in “cold storage” for nearly a year, highlighting the use of a 2023 criminal case unrelated to Sapkale, which the bench rejected as a typographical error.

Procedural lapses, such as failure to provide Marathi translations of essential documents, were also noted, undermining Sapkale’s right to effective legal representation.

Calling the state authorities’ conduct arbitrary, the court ordered the Rs 2 lakh compensation to be paid by the government but recovered from the responsible district magistrate’s salary.

Legal experts say the ruling reaffirms constitutional protections and serves as a warning to authorities misusing preventive detention laws in Maharashtra.