New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that an extra-judicial confession cannot be the sole basis for preventive detention under the National Security Act (NSA), quashed the detention of Mulla Afroz in the Sambhal violence case and imposed costs of Rs 10 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu allowed Afroz's appeal, holding that while an extra-judicial confession may constitute relevant material, the detaining authority must also consider other relevant circumstances before arriving at the satisfaction required to order preventive detention.

The Court found that the detaining authority had failed to take such factors into consideration in Afroz's case and had therefore ...