NSA detention on police confession invalid: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the confession statement of an accused made before a police officer cannot be the basis for detaining him under the National Security Act (NSA).

The top court said preventive detention has always been regarded as an exceptional measure and, therefore, must be invoked with the utmost circumspection and only in those rarest of rare cases where the circumstances genuinely warrant such exercise.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu said a confessional statement made before the police is not regarded as trustworthy evidence and is generally excluded from consideration against the maker.

“We are of the considered opinion that a confessional statement made before a police officer cannot, by itself and in the absence of any independent material lending support thereto, constitute a basis for forming the subjective satisfaction necessary to sustain an order of preventive detention.

“To permit such a course would be to allow a detention order to rest upon a foundation which the law itself regards with suspicion and excludes from evidentiary consideration,” the bench said. The top court said that if the detaining authority has relied upon other materials apart from the confessional statement, the court has to ascertain whether the detention can be upheld based on such other materials.

“We reiterate that a mere confessional statement of the detenu (without any other substantive grounds or material) cannot be relied on as the sole ground for passing an order of detention.

“This especially holds true in the facts of the present case where the detenu has consistently stated that his confessional statement has been obtained under threat and torture,” the bench said while quashing the preventive detention of Mulla Afroz.

The Uttar Pradesh Police invoked the strict National Security Act (NSA) against Afroz in October 2025 for his alleged role in the 2024 communal violence in Sambhal.

The top court noted that the detention order was passed against Afroz on October 13, 2025, and he has already suffered considerable loss of liberty, even while being granted bail in all the cases relating to the incident in which he featured as an accused. In such circumstances, the process was made the punishment, the bench said, while imposing a cost of `10 lakh on the government for passing the illegal preventive detention order.

“Having regard to the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present case, particularly the status of the criminal proceedings against the appellant, the nature of the material relied upon by the detaining authority, and the multiple orders of bail passed in favour of the appellant, we are unable to persuade ourselves to sustain the detention order as legal and valid.

“The requisite nexus between the material relied upon and the satisfaction recorded by the detaining authority is conspicuously absent. In view of our conclusions on the invalidity of the grounds relied upon by the detaining authority, it does not become necessary for us to enter into the question of whether the offences in which the detenu is implicated are of such nature as to fall within the ambit of affecting national security or even disturbance of public order,” the bench said. While pronouncing the judgment, Justice Datta also paid tribute to his law clerk, who passed away four days before his 27th birthday.

The NSA empowers the Centre and states to detain individuals to prevent them from acting in a manner “prejudicial to the defence of India”. The maximum detention period is 12 months, though it can be revoked earlier. The NSA can be invoked by the local administration and has to be ratified by a board headed by a former High Court judge. As it is preventive detention and not arrest, there is no legal obligation to present the detainee before a court of law.

Tension brewed in Sambhal in November 2024, when a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid was being carried out there following claims that a Harihar temple previously existed at the site.

On November 24, during a second round of the survey, protesting locals clashed with security personnel, which led to the death of four people and injuries to dozens.