Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has set aside the detention order against a Nashik man holding that the witness statements were not translated from Marathi to Urdu, a language he is conversant in.
A bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and SM Modak said since the statements were not given in the language the detenu was familiar with, his fundamental rights were affected as he could not challenge the detention order quickly.
The order was passed on a plea by one Mohammad Yusuf challenging the July 2024 detention order issued by the Nashik district magistrate against his son Shahabaz Ahmed Mohammad Yusuf.
Quashing the detention order, the HC noted that the entire proceedings, including the witness statements, before passing the detention order were held in Marathi.
Shahabaz was handed over a Urdu translation of the detention order but the witness statements were not furnished in Urdu translation, the HC said.
"It was equally important for the detaining authority to have served the detenue with the Urdu translation of the Marathi in-camera statements," the judges said.
Since this was not done, the detenue was deprived of making the earliest effective representation challenging the detention order, thereby affecting his valuable fundamental right under the Constitution, the HC said.
As per police, there were nine cases pending against Shahabaz following which the detention order was passed.
Yusuf was detained under the MPDA Act on July 30, 2024 based on his alleged involvement in a series of criminal activities between 2018 and 2020, including assault and robbery.
The detention order primarily relied on a criminal case from March 2024, where Yusuf and his accomplices allegedly assaulted the complainant and robbed him of his mobile phone and cash.
The Court also pointed out the unexplained and unreasonable delay in passing the detention order, which the authorities failed to justify.
