Back in 2007, Visamanbhai Dhola tried convincing the Gujarat government that he was only a social worker, but to no avail.
The District Magistrate insisted that he was a “dangerous person” and thus, had to be detained under the Gujarat Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA).
Sub-inspector BM Ahir’s statement clarifying that all suspicions against him were baseless did not help either and he continued to be in preventive detention. The suspicion of the District Magistrate, according to the recollection of details in the Gujarat High Court order, was based on “four secret statements."
The Gujarat High Court had to intervene. It deemed the preventive detention order in this case “illegal,” “improper” and “malicious” and directed the authorities to pay him a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh.
“It can certainly be concluded that the decision is not only against the settled principles of law, but certainly for some other reasons,” the court said in their order dated 2007.
But, by the time Dhola was released, he had already been in preventive detention for 45 days.
In another case of detention (in 2021) under the same law, the High Court had gone on to say:
“Rampant misuse of PASA is noticed by this court. This is one of such examples, where it is the police authorities who take upon such responsibility to settle the financial transaction / disputes between the parties, with the aid/threat of PASA.”