When the court closed for the summer vacations early this month, around 67 such petitions, filed in the past six months, were listed to be heard. Fresh petitions were filed this month too taking the total to 88. The arrests are carried out under six Central and state statutes including the National Security Act (NSA), Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Act (COFEPOSA) and most importantly Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act (MPDA). The Acts allow immediate arrest and detention of a person for a period ranging from sixmonths to a maxinim of two years without any trial.

Since detention deprives a person of individual freedom, the Supreme Court has directed that applications challenging detention orders should be heard on priority basis. In the Indian judicial system, detention ranks as the second most important matter, the first being confirmation of the death sentence. Lawyers representing such detenus are worried about the fate of these petitions.

In fact, detention-related matters were assigned to a division bench, which was already handling other criminal matters. However, the turn of detention-related cases did not come at all. When lawyers including S R Chitnis, U N Tripathi and Shirish Gupte brought this to the notice of the judges, the bench expressed its inability to hear the pleas due to other part-heard matters which had to be disposed off before the vacations.

As per detention rules, after the police detain a person, the matter is referred to an advisory board headed by a sitting high court judge. Theboard passes its opinion on the need for the detention. By the time the detenus know their fate, three months would have already passed. It is for this reason that many detenus (particularly those who are detained for six months) do not even attempt to challenge the detention order. ``Considering the experience of fellow applicants, they would rather serve their detention term without spending much on the legal formalities,'' claimed a lawyer.