Maneka Gandhi vs Union Of India on 25 January, 1978
4. Right of personal liberty is most precious right guaranteed
under the Constitution. It has been held to be transcendental,
inalienable and available to a person independent of the
Constitution. A person is not to be deprived of his personal
liberty, except in accordance with procedures established
under law and the procedure as laid down in Maneka Gandhi
v. Union of India, (1978 AIR SC 597), is to be just and fair. The
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personal liberty may be curtailed, where a person faces a
criminal charge or is convicted of an offence and sentenced to
imprisonment. Where a person is facing trial on a criminal
charge and is temporarily deprived of his personal liberty owing
to criminal charge framed against him, he has an opportunity to
defend himself and to be acquitted of the charge in case
prosecution fails to bring home his guilt. Where such person is
convicted of offence, he still has satisfaction of having been
given adequate opportunity to contest the charge and also
adduce evidence in his defence. However, framers of the
Constitution have, by incorporating Article 22(5) in the
Constitution, left room for detention of a person without a formal
charge and trial and without such person held guilty of an
offence and sentenced to imprisonment by a competent court.
Its aim and object is to save the society from activities that are
likely to deprive a large number of people of their right to life
and personal liberty. In such a case it would be dangerous for
the people at large, to wait and watch as by the time ordinary
law is set into motion, the person having dangerous designs,
would execute his plans, exposing general public to risk and
causing colossal damage to life and property. It is, for that
reason, necessary to take preventive measures and prevent the
person bent upon to perpetrate mischief from translating his
ideas into action. Article 22(5) Constitution of India therefore
leaves scope for enactment of preventive detention law.