Externment Orders

Subject – Polity

Context – Use externment orders with caution: SC

Concept –

A system of preventing people from entering into a particular place for a certain period, due to their ability to affect that place’s conditions by criminal activity, as exhibited by their prior conduct, this system of restraining the criminal activities is known as externment.
- Though each state has tailored the law in different ways, the general principle remains the same.
Although Article 19(1)(d) of the Indian Constitution gives citizens of India the right to move freely in the nation’s territory, Clause 5 of Article 19 of the Indian Constitution itself allows the State to impose certain reasonable restrictions in the interest of the general public as well.

Recent SC orders w.r.t Externment

The Supreme Court has held that a person cannot be barred by authorities from entering a place on mere suspicion. The court said authorities can pass an order of externment against a person only under extraordinary circumstances.
The discretion should be used “very sparingly” as it deprived a person of his or her right of free movement in the country. An externed person may not even be able to stay with his family or home.
Reminding the authorities on the conditions before ordering externment, the court said there should be “objective material on record on the basis of which the competent authority must record its subjective satisfaction that the movements or acts of any person are causing or calculated to cause alarm, danger or harm to persons or property”.