CRM-M-2979-2026 (O&M)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRM-M-2979-2026 (O&M)

Anuj Kumar Singh ....Petitioner versus Union of India ....Respondent Date of Decision: April 16, 2026 Date of Uploading: April 17, 2026 CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE SUMEET GOEL Present: Mr. Preetinder Singh Ahluwalia, Senior Advocate with Mr. Rahil Mahajan, Advocate, Ms. Kadambari Bhan, Advocate and Mr. Lovejeet Poonia, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Sourabh Goel, Special Public Prosecutor with Ms. Deify Jindal, Advocate and Ms. Anju Bansal, Advocate for the respondent – NCB.

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SUMEET GOEL, J.

The concept of personal liberty is the bedrock of a constitutional democracy, a primordial right so inextricably linked to human dignity, that one cannot conceive of meaningful existence in its absence. It is neither a gift of the state nor a creature of the codified statutes, rather it is a pre-political and inherent attribute of humanity that the law merely seeks to recognize and fortify. The antiquity of this reverence is evidenced by the fact that as early as 13^th Century, long before the contemporary lexicon of human rights was articulated, Clause 39 of Magna Carta (1215) decreed that no free