HINGOL SINGH Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this petition, the detenue Hingol Singh has questioned the proceedings for his detention under the Rajasthan Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, 2006 as being wholly illegal and unauthorised.

(2.) The relevant aspects of the law applicable and the background facts could be noticed as follows: The Rajasthan Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act, 2006 ('the Act' hereafter) received the assent of the President on 25.02.2008; and came into force from 05.03.2008, the date of its publication in the official Gazette. The enactment is essentially to provide for preventive detention of boot-leggers, dangerous persons, drug offenders, immoral traffic offenders and property grabbers for preventing their anti-social and dangerous activities, which are prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. For an eye-view of the scheme of the Act and its provisions, so far relevant for the present case, it could be noticed that the expressions "boot-legger", "dangerous person" and "habitual" are defined, respectively, in clauses (b), (c) and (g) of Section 2 of the Act as under:-

(3.) The principal and substantive provision in the enactment in regard to the powers to make the orders for detention of certain persons is contained in Section 3 of the Act that reads as under:-