The Supreme Court on Thursday made it mandatory for all detaining authorities to furnish vital documents and statements to individuals placed under preventive detention.

The decision by a bench headed by Justice Bhushan R Gavai reinforced the constitutional guarantee of personal freedom and stressed the importance of allowing detainees a fair opportunity to challenge such orders.

The bench, also comprising justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan, ruled that the failure to supply all relevant documents and statements, especially in a language the detainee is conversant with, hampers their right to effectively contest the detention.

Emphasising that the liberty of an individual is paramount and should be guarded zealously, the judgment set a high bar for detaining authorities, obliging them to not only inform detainees of the grounds of their detention but also ensure that all essential materials are provided in a comprehensible format.

“All such materials which have been relied upon by the detaining authorities in forming its subjective satisfaction must be supplied to the detenue,” said the bench. It added that the right to effective representation is a constitutional right that cannot be frustrated.

The court directed that the prison authorities and the competent authority in the central government are obligated to ascertain that all representations by persons under preventive detention are dealt with expeditiously because, in matters of liberty, there must be no delay.

The case involved a preventive detention order under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA Act) upheld by the Kerala high court in March 2024.

The high court dismissed the habeas corpus petition filed by the wife of the detenu, Appisseril Kochu Mohammed Shaji.