Person does not lose fundamental rights on conviction or preventive detention: Madras High Court grants ₹5 lakh compensation to two women

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay ₹5 lakh each to two women who were branded as bootleggers by local authorities, and kept in preventive detention illegally for four months. [Manokaran v. State and ors].A Bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and AD Jagadish Chandira said that a citizen's fundamental right to life and personal liberty did not cease to exist merely because he or she was imprisoned, convicted or detained."The protection guaranteed under the above provision extends even to persons who are undergoing imprisonment as a convict prisoner and he does not lose his fundamental rights merely because he is convicted either as a convict prisoner or detained pursuant to a preventive detention order," the High Court said..The Court was hearing two habeas corpus petitions filed by the kin of the two women - Manokaran and Dhivya. The women were detained on December 8, 2021 by local authorities and subsequently lodged at the women's prison in Tiruchirappalli district. A formal preventive detention order was passed against them by the detaining authorities only 50 days later, on January 28, 2022.It noted that while an advisory board had held on March 16, 2022 that no sufficient reasons existed for such detention, a revocation order was passed by the local authorities only on July 22..The High Court noted that no reason had been provided for such delay. It said that the local administration had acted with utmost lethargy and kept the two women "unnecessarily in prison for four months."A citizen's right to life and personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution mandated that a person could be deprived of his life or personal liberty only in accordance with the procedure established by law, the Court reiterated."The procedure established by law to deprive of life or personal liberty of a person cannot be arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable one or it cannot be whimsical and fanciful," it added.The judges went on to say that even a convict must be treated with respect, even if one felt that the convict did not deserve respect..While deciding on the issue of compensation, the Court quoted Abraham Lincoln as saying "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves".It went on to describe the chain of events a "classic case of bureaucratic lethargy and slumber," and cited a number of Supreme Court decisions to conclude that the women, who have since been released, are entitled to compensation..It thus directed that the compensation amount be paid to the two women within six weeks. Advocate KAS Prabhu appeared for the petitioners and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammad Jinnah and Additional Public Prosecutor Babu Muthumeeran appeared for the State government..[Read order]