BHOPAL/JABALPUR: Madhya Pradesh high court has asked the state chief secretary to convene a meeting of all district collectors and let them know about the “meaning and intent” of National Security Act so that they don’t pass orders under NSA “under political pressure and without application of mind”.
The court quashed an order of the Burhanpur collector to extern a person from the district and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on state govt, saying it was free to recover the amount from the collector.
Petitioner Anant Ram Awase said that the Burhanpur collector had ordered his externment from Burhanpur and adjoining districts under NSA for a year on Jan 23, 2024. He appealed against it before the Indore division commissioner, but it was dismissed on Oct 14, 2024.
Awase then moved HC, arguing that the externment order under NSA provisions was against the letter and spirit of the law, and that it was passed without registering the statement of even a single witness.
During hearing of the petition, the bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal found that there were references to 11 cases registered against Awase under Forest Act between 2018 and 2023, a case of rioting in 2019, and an attempt-to-murder case in 2023. The govt counsel admitted that cases registered under Forest Act are not covered under section 6 of NSA.
The govt counsel also argued that Awase works in a tribal area and people are too scared to come forward and record statements against him. But when the court asked how many persons were contacted for recording of statements, the counsel couldn’t reply. He said there were two criminal cases against Awase on the basis of which he could be externed from the district he resides in under the provisions of NSA.
Justice Agrawal, however, said that a person cannot be externed under NSA only because a criminal case has been registered against him. The collector has made a reference to cases registered against the petitioner under Forest Act in his externment order, which is not relevant.
“The district collector and divisional commissioner have passed the order against the letter and spirit of the law. Besides, the district collector furnished wrong information about contacting people of the area to record their statements in the matter,” the HC order said. With this observation, the judge quashed the collector’s order and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the state.
