Articles 22(3) – (7), which constitutionalised preventive detention, are the Bermuda Triangle in India’s constitutional Atlantic where fundamental rights such as liberty, equality and due process vanish without a trace.

In June this year, while setting aside a preventive detention order under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007 (KAAPA) in Dhanya M. vs State of Kerala (2025 INSC 809), the Supreme Court of India underscored that the extraordinary power of preventive detention must be exercised sparingly and strictly in accordance with constitutional safeguards. Reaffirming the principle that individual liberty cannot be curtailed lightly, the Court highlighted the vital distinction between “public order” and “law and order” and clarified that preventive detention cannot

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