In Brief
Pesala Nookaraju, a bootlegger, was preventively detained under the Andhra Pradesh Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act, 1986, for distributing dangerous illicit liquor across four arrests within 14 months. The Court upheld the detention order, clarifying that the three-month limit in Section 3(2) concerns delegation of powers, not detention duration. Once the Advisory Board confirms a detention, it may extend to 12 months without periodic review. The Court reaffirmed that "public order" is distinct from "law and order"—requiring demonstration of widespread community harm. Here, chemical analysis proving the liquor dangerous to health, combined with multiple offences, satisfied the detaining authority's subjective belief that the detenu's activities threatened public health and order.
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