New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled
that in view of growing terrorism, air passengers and others
carrying huge cash can be detained by the authorities for
questioning and the same cannot be dubbed as violation of a
citizen's personal liberty.
The apex court said frisking and detaining of
passengers by the authorities was in national interests as
otherwise it would enable terrorists and vested interests to
carry out their activities unchecked.
"The nation is facing terrorist threat. Transportation
of large sums of money is associated with distribution of
funds for terrorist activities, illegal pay offs etc.
"There is also rampant circulation of unaccounted
blackmoney destroying the economy of the country. In this
background, if the officers wanted to fully satisfy themselves
that the funds were not intended for any illegal purpose, such
action cannot be termed as highhanded or unreasonable," a
bench of Justices R V Raveendran and K S Radhakrishnan said in
an order.
The apex court passed the order while dismissing the
appeal of Rajendran Chingaravelu, a US-returned computer
engineer seeking proper guidelines from the government against
alleged harassment of passengers by the authorities in the
name of frisking by detaining them for long hours.
-PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 21:36