Preventive detention delay and broken live link can invalidate an order where the interval is unexplained.

Preventive detention under COFEPOSA cannot survive where substantial delay in processing and issuing the order is not satisfactorily explained and the live link with the prejudicial activity is broken. The Court found that the detaining authority failed to account for material intervals at several stages, including proposal processing, correspondence, and the period between receipt of information and issuance of the detention order. It also noted that no further adverse activity by the proposed detenu was shown after the proposal was sent. On these facts, the detention order was held unsustainable for want of a subsisting basis of subjective satisfaction and was quashed.

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Issues: Whether the detention order was vitiated for unexplained delay between the prejudicial incident and the passing of the order, thereby snapping the live link and destroying the basis of subjective satisfaction.

Analysis: In preventive detention matters, delay is not tested mechanically by counting months. The Court must see whether the delay has been satisfactorily explained and whether the causal connection between the prejudicial activity and the detention purpose survives. Here, although the sponsoring authority explained part of the timeline, the detaining authority failed to account for substantial intervals at multiple stages, including processing of the proposal, repeated correspondence, and the period between receipt of information and issuance of the order. The record also showed that after the proposal was sent, the proposed detenu was not shown to have indulged in any further adverse activity. In these circumstances, the delay was held to be unexplained and the live link between the incident and the detention order stood broken.

Conclusion: The detention order was invalidated for unexplained delay and lack of a subsisting live link; the challenge succeeded.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition was allowed and the preventive detention order was quashed, resulting in the detenu's release forthwith if not otherwise required.

Ratio Decidendi: In preventive detention under COFEPOSA, an order becomes unsustainable where substantial delay in processing and issuing the detention order remains inadequately explained and the materials show that the live link between the prejudicial act and the need for detention has been snapped.

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