New Delhi: In a major judgement, the Supreme Court has ruled that preventive detention of a known smuggler cannot be termed to be punitive in nature and the period of such detention could not be discounted from an imprisonment sentence awarded to him after conviction in a smuggling case.

A Bench comprising justice Shivaraj V Patil and justice Arijit Pasayat said, "Detention under the preventive detention laws is not punitive, but essentially a precautionary measure intended to prevent and intercept a person before he commits an infra-active act, which he had done earlier."

This ruling came on a petition filed by one Maliyakkal Abdul Azeez, who claimed that he was entitled to set off as provided under Section 428 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) for the period of preventive detention under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA) since the detention was quashed by the Delhi High Court.

Quoting the famous 1917 case titled Rex vs Halliday, the Bench said preventive detention "is not punitive but precautionary measure".

The Bench said, "The object is not to punish a man for having done something, but to intercept him before he does it and to prevent him from doing it."

PTI