'Shocking Affairs In Prayagaraj Police Commissionerate' : Allahabad High Court Flags Misuse Of BNSS Preventive Detention Powers
The Court noted that BNSS preventive detention provisions were used against over 2000 persons since 2025 in Prayagraj district.
Coming down heavily on the abuse of the preventive detention provision under the BNSS, the Allahabad High Court on Monday observed that magisterial powers granted to Police Commissioners in districts like Prayagraj and Ghaziabad are being “misused to the hilt”. Terming the situation as "a shocking state of affairs", a bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Vinai Kumar Dwivedi...
Coming down heavily on the abuse of the preventive detention provision under the BNSS, the Allahabad High Court on Monday observed that magisterial powers granted to Police Commissioners in districts like Prayagraj and Ghaziabad are being “misused to the hilt”.
Terming the situation as "a shocking state of affairs", a bench of Justice Siddharth and Justice Vinai Kumar Dwivedi directed the UP Government to pay ₹2,00,000 as compensation to a man who was illegally jailed for 8 days under the preventive detention provisions of the BNSS over an alleged breach of peace.
The bench further directed that this compensation amount be recovered directly from the salary of the erring Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) following a formal disciplinary inquiry.
This is the second such instance this week in which the High Court has flagged a disturbing trend in UP.
On the same day, in another order, the same bench had observed that police officials and magistrates are casually sending persons to jail for days on the mere apprehension of a breach of the peace, acting in a "highly irresponsible manner".
Read more about the case here: Magistrates, Cops Personally Liable To Compensate For Illegal Preventive Detention : Allahabad High Court Issues Guidelines
Briefly put, at about 12:50 AM on March 19 this year, the police officers from the Khiri Police Station (Prayagraj) forcibly entered the residence of the petitioner (Mansoor Ahmad) and took him away.
When petitioner No. 2 (his wife) asked the reason for the police's action, she was not informed of the reason and was instead pushed aside. He was kept in judicial custody for 8 days and was released only on March 27, 4 days after the moving of this habeas corpus plea.
Before the High Court, the State justified the arrest of the petitioner by claiming that he had hurled abuses at villagers, which created an apprehension of a breach of the peace. Therefore, it was argued, appropriate action was taken by the police under Sections 170, 126, and 135 of the BNSS.
The bench was also apprised that after his detention on March 19, he was produced before the ACP, and, since he could not provide surety on that day, he was sent to judicial custody. Finally, when on March 27, he furnished personal surety, he was released from judicial custody.
However, at the outset, the bench noted a glaring illegality: there was nothing on record to show that, on March 19, when the petitioner was produced before the ACP, he had refused to furnish a personal bond for keeping the peace.
The bench noted that on a printed proforma known as a "Talabi Aadesh" (Summoning Order), the ACP sent Ahmad straight to judicial custody and arbitrarily fixed his next date of appearance 8 days later, for March 27.
The High Court pointed out that if the petitioner did not furnish the bond on March 19, the ACP should have fixed the next date for March 20 to provide him an opportunity to do so. Instead, the petitioner was kept in illegal detention for eight days, entirely “dehors the provisions of law”.
When the bench made further inquiries into such cases, a massive and systemic abuse of the preventive laws came to light before it.
A report by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Prayagraj, revealed that in the Prayagraj Commissionerate alone, 1,321 people were detained under preventive detention provisions in 2025 and kept in judicial custody for up to 20 days.
The data further disclosed that in the year 2026, till now, 721 persons have been detained and the period of their detention is 1-3 weeks, or more.
"This is shocking state of affairs in the Commissionerate, Prayagraj. The Commissioner of Police has been given the powers of a Magistrate, which are being misused to the hilt", the bench remarked in its 10-page order.
Similarly, the Court also reviewed the data from the Ghaziabad Commissionerate, which showed that a total of 2,522 persons were detained between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026, for 1 to 17 days. This detention, the Court termed as “not in accordance with law”.
Against this backdrop, the bench referred to its own detailed judgment in a similar case from Ghaziabad [Chander Pal Singh v State of UP and others 2026 LiveLaw (AB)319], wherein certain guidelines were laid down.
Crucially, the Court has provided that if a person is illegally detained for more than 24 hours without a plausible reason, the State must pay them ₹25,000 per day as compensation.
Therefore, noting that the petitioner had been kept in illegal judicial custody for 8 days, the Court concluded that he was liable to be compensated at the rate of Rs. 25,000/- per day, amounting to Rs. 2 lacs, to be paid within 6 weeks.
The Commissioner of Police, Commissionerate Prayagraj, has further been directed to file a compliance report of the order on or before September 14.
Case title - Mansoor Ahmad @ Lallu and another vs State of U.P. and 4 others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 321
Case Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 321