​Peace with peace: On preventive detentions

In Chander Pal Singh , a matter involving preventive proceedings, the Allahabad High Court has simultaneously addressed a part of the criminal justice system that often receives less attention than ordinary criminal proceedings and the more overbearing reality of mechanisms designed to avert disturbances having gradually become instruments to deprive people of liberty. The state has the power to intervene before a crime occurs if it is reasonably apprehensive that a person is a threat to public order. However, it has acquired a habit of exercising that power routinely, resulting in detentions without any substantive criminal charge. The High Court’s order was based, the Bench said, on a “highly irresponsible” deprivation of personal liberties in Uttar Pradesh, where police officers and executive magistrates were using preventive powers to incarcerate individuals on the basis of arguably minor apprehensions. In Chander Pal Singh as well, the petitioner, a physically challenged Dalit advocate, had been arrested over a petty dispute with a neighbour. The Bench said that between May 2025 and April 2026, around 2,500 people were reportedly subjected to preventive detention proceedings in Ghaziabad, despite a 2021 State policy to guide the exercise of such powers.