Lawful detention and COVID-19 safety measures outweighed release claims where flight risk and GST prosecution concerns remained.

Lawful detention in a special camp was not disturbed on COVID-19 grounds where the facility had adequate sanitation, screening, disinfectants, masks and quarantine arrangements, and no inmate was found infected. The Court also considered the seriousness of the GST prosecution, the petitioners' prior custodial and bail history, and a credible flight risk. In that setting, it held that the petitioners could not claim special release or different treatment from other similarly situated inmates, and rejected the request to reside elsewhere during the pandemic. The criminal case was directed to proceed expeditiously after normalcy was restored.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners, who were detained in a special camp and facing prosecution under GST laws, were entitled to be released from the camp and permitted to reside elsewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analysis: The petitioners invoked the right to life and sought temporary release on health and safety grounds. The materials before the Court showed that the special camp had adequate space, sanitation measures, medical screening, disinfectants, masks and quarantine arrangements, and that no inmate was found infected with COVID-19. The Court also noted that the petitioners were facing serious allegations under the GST enactments, had earlier been subject to custodial and bail proceedings, and that there was a real apprehension of flight risk. In these circumstances, the Court declined to interfere with the detention arrangement and held that a different treatment could not be extended to the petitioners alone when other inmates were similarly situated.

Conclusion: The request for release from the special camp and residence at the alternate address was rejected; the petitioners were not entitled to the relief sought.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions failed, and the Court instead directed that the criminal case proceed expeditiously after normalcy was restored.

Ratio Decidendi: A person detained under lawful authority is not entitled to special release on COVID-19 grounds where the detention facility is shown to have adequate preventive measures and there is a credible concern of flight risk.

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