Shillong, May 22: The ongoing legal proceedings of chief of the proscribe GNLA Champion Sangma has taken a new turn when the Meghalaya High Court today set aside the order issued by the district magistrate of Tura to issue a detention order against him following the failure of the authority to make a representation against the order besides other issues.
Justice TMK Singh of the Meghalaya High Court during the hearing which was held today cancelled the Meghalaya Preventive Detention (Amendment) Act (MPDA) order issued by the district magistrate of Tura on January 30, 2013 against Champion Sangma.
It was also informed that the failure of the administration to get the detention order approved by the state government within 12 days has resulted in the action of the West Garo Hills district magistrate becoming null and void.
According to the article 22 (50) of the Indian constitution state that ‘When any person is detained in pursuance of an order made under any law providing for preventive detention, the authority making the order shall, as soon as may be, communicate to such person the grounds on which the order has been made and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against the order’, was violated by the authority.
Talking to reporters Sangma’s lawyer Sujit Dey said, “The procedures of the law laid down was not followed by the authority, henceforth, the order has died out,”
Another loophole in this order was the non-disposal of Sangma’s representation against the order by the state government.
He also informed that this is the first time that the court has set aside a detention order within 4 months of its issuance.
Moreover, the court also observed that the state government cannot arrest the GNLA Chief on two similar MPDA cases which the authorities had relied on.
Meanwhile, it was also told that another hearing on the Williamnagar MPDA case will be held tentatively on Friday. (SP News)
