Report No. 40
12. Extension to persons under preventive detention.- During the pendency of the Prisoners (Attendance in Courts) Bill before Parliament, it was apparently decided to extend the scope of the new law to persons under preventive detention. Relying on the Preamble to the Prisoners Act, 1900, the Bombay High Court had held1 its provisions inapplicable to persons detained in prisons by executive authority.
Apart from the fact that section 4 of the Preventive Detention Act, 1950, relating to the removal of detenue from one place to another, was hardly appropriate for authorising such removal for a purpose unconnected with the object of their detention, several High Courtsl had emphasised that the power of preventive detention could not be used to help investigation on an offence alleged to have been committed by a detenue. Accordingly, while the long title of the Prisoners (Attendance in Courts) Act, 1955, refers to "persons confined in prisons", the definition in clause (a) of section 2 states that "references to confinement in a prison, by whatever form of words, include references to confinement or detention in a prison under any law providing for preventive detention".
In passing, it may be noted that this definition excludes from the scope of the Act those persons who are kept under detention in places other than "prisons" as defined in clause (b) of section 2.
1. Taherelly v. Chanabassappa, ILR 1944 Bom 724.
2. Dilbagh Singh v. Emp., AIR 1044 Lah 373; Labarama v. State, 55 CWN 13; Maladath Malyali v. Commissioner of Police, AIR 1950 Born 202; Narayanamma v. Hyderabad State, AIR 1950 Hyd 68.