The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has held that when an accused misuses liberty granted on bail and commits further offences, authorities should consider moving to cancel bail instead of routinely invoking preventive detention under the Goondas Act.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Palanivelrajan, who challenged a preventive detention order issued by the Madurai Police Commissioner on September 17, 2025. A case had been registered against him alleging that he waylaid a person, assaulted him with a knife and an iron rod, used obscene language and threatened bystanders.
The petitioner argued that if a person commits an offence while out on bail in an earlier case, the proper course is to seek cancellation of bail, and that the detention note did not clearly set out reasons. He also contended that the allegations, at most, amounted to a law-and-order issue and did not rise to the level of disturbing “public order”. The State opposed the plea, saying the detention could not be set aside merely because a bail-cancellation petition was not filed and that the incident affected public order.
A Division Bench comprising Justices N. Anand Venkatesh and B. Thanabal held that the alleged conduct did not disrupt normal life or peace in the locality and could, at best, be treated as a law-and-order problem, not a public-order issue. The court quashed the Goondas Act detention order.
The Bench said it proposes to frame guidelines to ensure that, in cases where bail is misused, steps are taken to seek cancellation of bail rather than issuing preventive detention orders. It directed the Director General of Police to file a report on the present position by April 7.
